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

Welcome to the last full week before the Christmas season kicks off. Most investors will be sorry to see 2024 come and go. For the PBGC, 2024 has been a year of great accomplishments, with the approval of Special Financial Assistance (SFA) for 35 multiemployer plans covering 458,171 participants with SFA grants totaling $16.2 billion – wow!

The last week was a continuation of the PBGC’s activity with seven more funds submitting applications seeking $638.2 million for nearly 27k members. The applications included five new submissions and 2 revised applications. The applicants included the Dairy Industry-Union Pension Plan for Philadelphia and Vicinity, Bricklayers Pension Fund of West Virginia, United Wire, Metal and Machine Pension Plan, Distributors Association Warehousemen’s Pension Trust, Local 945 I.B. of T. Pension Plan, Alaska Teamster – Employer Pension Plan, and the Local 888 Pension Fund. Grant requests ranged from United Wire’s $228.5 million to the Bricklayers $1.96 million for their 170 participants.

In addition to the new submissions, there was one approval. Teamsters Local 11 Pension Plan will receive $29.3 million for the 2,012 members of its plan. This North Haledon, NJ fund submitted a revised application on August 29, 2024. In other ARPA news, there were no applications denied or withdrawn during the previous 7 days. In addition, there were no new plans added to the waitlist or forced to repay a portion of the SFA due to census errors.

US Treasury interest rates backed up fairly significantly last week as inflation data came in a little higher than recent trends giving bonds investors reason to challenge the narrative that the Fed would continue pushing down the Fed Funds rate. The higher rates are providing plan sponsors with greater cost savings on future benefits through cash flow matching strategies.