By: Russ Kamp, CEO, Ryan ALM, Inc.

We hope that 2026 has begun well for you.

Last week was very quiet regarding ARPA and the PBGC’s implementation of this critical pension legislation. The PBGC has entered an inflection point, in which initial applications are no longer accepted (by legislation) and only revised applications can be resubmitted as of 1/1/26. There are dozens of multiemployer plans that will not be given an opportunity to submit an application for SFA. It is truly unfortunate.

In fact, a significant percentage (78/84) of the applicants that haven’t been called from the waitlist are plans that only became “eligible” following the Second Circuit’s ruling. As a reminder, multiemployer plans that terminated by mass withdrawal (prior to 2020) and are now seeking Special Financial Assistance (SFA) sit in a very narrow and evolving category. Historically, the PBGC treated them as ineligible, the Second Circuit decision has effectively opened the door for some of these plans to file as eligible multiemployer plans under ARPA, provided they still otherwise meet one of the statutory SFA eligibility tests and file by the regular SFA deadlines. There’s the catch, not one of these “mass withdrawal” plans has been given the opportunity to submit an application prior to the December 31, 2025, deadline.

Regarding non-mass withdrawal applicants, the previous week saw no applications submitted, none approved, no plans being denied due to ineligibility, and no plans asked to rebate a portion of the SFA received due to census issues. However, there was one plan that withdrew its initial application. Teamsters Industrial Employees Pension Plan, a non-priority group member, is seeking $27.4 million in SFA for the 1,888 plan participants. They will have the opportunity to resubmit an application until 12/31/26.

It appears that there are roughly 40 funds, including those currently under review and those that withdrew a previous application, that might still be receiving SFA grants. If that is correct, we might eventually have more than 190 pension systems supported by ARPA/PBGC. Amazing. Unfortunately, it appears that more than 80 will not be given the opportunity to file an application with the PBGC.