What Comes After 2051 Pension Relief Sunset? It Depends, Attorneys Say

Now that special financial assistance has been signed into law for union-brokered pensions, all eyes are on the year 2051—the date through which a federal stimulus package is intended to prop up the most underfunded of those plans.

Actuarial assumptions federal agencies are poised to make now about who qualifies and how much money multiemployer plans will receive could determine whether those plans survive after that date. Without financial assistance, about 124 plans were projected to become insolvent within 15 to 20 years, threatening the retirement benefits of more than 1.4 million Americans.

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, which insures ...