Pension Risk Matters

In its newly released "Pension Insurance Data Book", the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) continues to show about a $23 billion deficit, adding that "typically, the plans trusteed by the PBGC are only about 50 percent funded on a termination basis. Very few of the claims against the agency (only 1.5 percent) come from plans that are at least 75 percent funded."

By way of background, the "PBGC is a federal corporation created by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 to guarantee payment of basic pension benefits earned by workers. Its two insurance programs cover 44 million American workers and retirees participating in over 30,000 private-sector defined benefit pension plans, including some 1,600 multiemployer plans. The agency receives no funds from general tax revenues. Operations are financed largely by insurance premiums paid by companies that sponsor pension plans and by investment returns."

Could it get any worse?