News and Analysis

Status of Applications to Reduce Benefits​

• Applications for Benefit Suspension​, Department of Treasury, ongoing
  

• Western Pennsylvania Teamsters pension fund gets OK to cut benefits, Pension & Investments, 5/9/19
  
• Treasury Gets Benefits Reduction Happy, Chief Investment Officer, 2/15/19
  
• Two more multiemployer plans get OK to reduce benefits, Pensions & Investments, 2/5/19 
  
• Local 805 Teamsters cleared for benefit reductions; IBEW Local 237 applies, Pensions & Investments, 11/20/18
  
• Struggling Cincinnati Pension Plan Applies for Benefits Reduction, Chief Investment Officer, 9/13/18
  
• 2 multiemployer applications to cut benefits approved, another one submitted, Pensions & Investments, 8/29/18
  
• Yea or Nay? 11 Pension Plans Await Agency OK on Benefit Cuts, Bloomberg BNA, 8/8/18
  
• Four Multiemployer Pension Plans Apply to Reduce Benefits, Plansponsor, 7/27/18
  
• Alaska Ironworkers Pension Plan approved for MPRA benefit cuts, Pensions & Investments, 5/8/18
  
• Four Pension Funds Apply for Benefits Reductions, Chief Investment Officer, 4/20/18
  
• Pressroom workers' pension fund applies for MPRA benefit reductions, Pensions & Investments, 4/11/18 
  

Joint Select Committee on Solvency of Multiemployer Pension Plans (Expired in 2018)

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) is expected to continue the work of the Joint Select Committee.

• Hearing Recap: Multiemployer Pension Plans Need Financial Help or a New Investment Model, Plansponsor, 3/8/19
  
• Missing Deadline, Joint Committee Continues Work on Multiemployer Pension Crisis, Plansponsor, 11/30/18
  
• Multiemployer Pension Solvency Discussions: What’s Next?, Word on Benefits blog, 11/29/18
  
• Report: Cost of Sherrod Brown pension bill much less than estimated, Columbus Dispatch, 9/12/18
  
• Retirees, Workers Use Rally to Sound Off on Underfunded Pensions, Bloomberg BNA, 7/20/18
  
• New Committee Hears What Led to Multiemployer Plan Crisis, Plan Adviser, 4/19/18
  
• 1 million Americans are counting on Congress to save their pensions, CNN Money, 4/17/18
  
• Congress Looking at [Resolving Problems Facing Some Multiemployer Pension Plans], Massillon Inde, 3/29/18 
  

• Navigating a Benefit Suspension Application Under MPRA, Benefits Magazine, May 2019
  
• Multiemployer Pension Solvency Discussions: What’s Next?, Word on Benefits blog, 11/29/18
  
• Confronting and Surviving Insolvency: A Guide for Multiemployer Pension Plans, Benefits Magazine, October 2017
  
• A Balancing Act: Deciding Whether to Pursue Benefit Reductions Under MPRA​, Benefits Magazine, April 2016 ​​
  
• MPRA Aims to Strengthen PBGC, Benefits Magazine, February 2016​​
  
• Can a Merger Save Your Pension Plan?​, Benefits Magazine, October 2015
  
• PPA Paradoxes Eliminated: MPRA Offers Technical Corrections...and More​, Benefits Magazine, August 2015 
  
• MPRA Guidance-What Does It Mean?​, Word on Benefits blog, 7/13/15 
  
• Finding Goldilocks: The Retiree Representative Under MPRA, Benefits Magazine, June 2015 
  
• Multiemployer Pension Plan Reform: How Will the New Rules Impact Employers and Employees?, Benefits Magazine, April 2015
• Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014, Benefits Magazine, February 2015             
• What the Cromnibus Law Means for Multiemployer Pension Plans, International Foundation Word on Benefits blog, 12/15/14
  

Analysis & Whitepapers

• The Multiemployer Pension Plan Crisis: Observations, Segal Consulting, 7/10/18
  
• Data on Multiemployer Defined Benefit (DB) Pension Plans, Congressional Research Service, 5/1/18 
  
• Multiemployer Defined Benefit (DB) Pension Plans: A Primer and Analysis of Policy Options, Congressional Research Service, 3/29/18
  
• U.S. Chamber, National Coordinating Committee for Multiemployer Plans Release Principles for Multiemployer Pension Reform, NCCMP, 3/14/18
• The Multiemployer Pension Plan Crisis: The History, Legislation, and What's Next?, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, December 2017
• Multiemployer Pension Plans: Current Status and Future Trends, Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, November 2017
  
• Multiemployer Plans: Their Currrent Circumstances in Historical Context, DOL EBSA & Impaq International, September 2017
  

• Overview of Multiemployer Pension System Issues​, American Academy of Actuaries Issue Brief, June 2017​

• Honoring the PBGC Guarantee for Multiemployer Plans Requires Difficult Choices​, American Academy of Actuaries, 10/20/16 
  

• Solutions Not Bailouts, Retirement Security Review Commission, National Coordinating Commitee for Multiemployer Plans (NCCMP), February 2013