‘Alarm Bells Are Ringing,’ Pension Insurer Warns Lawmakers

The federal insurer tasked with preserving benefits for underfunded multiemployer plans ran a $65 billion deficit this year. And the bleeding isn’t expected to stop anytime soon.

In his first annual report, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation Director Gordon Hartogensis confirms that the self-funded agency’s ability to cover benefit payments from distressed corporate pensions is unlikely to extend beyond 2025.

“Without reforms, PBGC’s Multiemployer Insurance Program will run out of money. That will leave about 1.5 million participants and beneficiaries in already-failing plans with much less than the PBGC’s guaranteed level of benefits,” Hartogensis wrote in the report. “The alarm ...