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

In the last 10 days or so, I’ve felt an earthquake in NJ, witnessed the eclipse in Dallas, and then saw the magnificence of a double rainbow on Saturday evening. What does Mother Nature have in store for me this week?

Fortunately, the PBGC didn’t have many surprises for us during the last week, as activity was mainly kept behind closed doors. They did provide an update on Friday, as they customarily do, but there wasn’t much to show. In fact, there were no new applications filed, approved, denied, or withdrawn. There was one new fund added to the waitlist. Pension Plan of International Union of Bricklayers & Allied Craftworkers Local #15 PA added its name to the list on April 10th. They became the 114th fund to be on the list. As previously reported, 27 of those have filed an application with 8 having been approved for an SFA grant.

There has been a new tab added to the PBGC’s weekly update, as a result of excess SFA grant money being repaid. The first fund to return excess grant money is the Central States, Southeast & Southwest Areas Pension Plan, which returned $126.7 million or 0.35% of the initial grant payment. They are the first, but they likely won’t be the last to have to do so.

Economic and labor market conditions remain positive, likely keeping US interest rates elevated in 2024. These higher rates provide SFA recipients with the wonderful opportunity to defease the promised benefits at lower present value cost. Let us help you!