By: Russ Kamp, Managing Director, Ryan ALM, Inc.

Welcome to November! The PBGC has now been busy implementing the ARPA legislation for 15 months. Lots has happened during this period of time, but nothing more important than the fact that $52.5 billion in grants, including interest, has been approved so far. Awesome!

There was not a lot of activity during the last week, but three funds, America’s Family Benefit Retirement Plan, Union de Tronquistas de Puerto Rico Local 901 Pension Plan, and American Federation of Musicians and Employers’ Pension Plan (AFM) submitted revised applications seeking SFA. In the case of AFM, they withdrew an application after identifying a minor input error. They were permitted to correct the issue and immediately resubmit another revised application without losing their spot in the review process. Although the PBGC has 120-days from the submission of an application to act, it is expected that AFM will get a decision on its application before year-end, which would coincide with the original 120 day period.

There were no other applications denied or withdrawn and no additions to the waiting list, which seems to have been settled at this time since we haven’t seen a fund request a place on the list since August 24, 2023. There were no applications approved among the 26 currently being reviewed.