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

It has been 46 days since the PBGC has permitted an application to be submitted through their portal. I was still digesting my Thanksgiving dinner when the last application, United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 152 Retail Meat Pension Plan, was submitted seeking $266.1 million in SFA for its 10,252 plan participants. As we’ve reported before and as highlighted below, there are still dozens of applications waiting (patiently??) in the queue for the opportunity to request SFA.

I don’t have any particular insight into why this process seems to have been halted following a frenzied pace that saw 69 plans gain approval for more than $53 billion in SFA. Most of those assets have been disbursed at this time. There are still 16 applications “under review”, but not a single one has been approved since November. Fortunately, no applications have been denied, while just one was withdrawn in the latest week. The Legacy Plan of the UNITE HERE Retirement Fund withdrew its already revised application that is seeking $938.1 million for the nearly 92K participants.

Let’s hope that whatever seems to be holding up this process gets resolved sooner than later, as many retirees and those hoping to retire wait patiently to see if the promised benefit will actually be available when needed.