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

March has certainly blown in like a lion, especially on the east coast, where we’ve been living under wind advisors for the last few days. Fortunately, those haven’t been headwinds and as a result, the capital markets continue to be supportive of our retirement industry.

With regard to ARPA and the PBGC’s effort to provide Special Financial Assistance (SFA) to worthy and eligible multiemployer plans, the process has definitely slowed. In an email exchange with the sponsor of a fund that has recently had to withdraw their application, it was shared that the “death audit” being conducted by the PBGC on each of the applications has contributed to the slowing of the process. Hopefully, those plans that haven’t filed yet will go to the trouble of ensuring that the plan populations are accurate.

As far as the activity for the week ending 3/8, the PBGC has reported that no new applications were filed. Furthermore, none were rejected and there were no new withdrawals. We are pleased to report that one fund, Teamsters Union Local No. 73 Pension Plan, a non-priority group member, has had its application approved for $7.5 million in SFA for the plan’s 529 members.

As the chart above highlights, with 71 application approvals, the PBGC is 35.5% of its way through the current roster of potential SFA recipients. Much more to come!