Central States Pension Fund Rescue Not Panacea for All

Many Central States pension fund retirees said they would be better off financially if the plan’s rescue proposal were rejected—even if the fund eventually went insolvent.

A closer look at the numbers shows they were right.

The Central States, Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Fund last summer became the first multiemployer fund to file a rescue petition with the Treasury Department requesting approval of participant benefit cuts to avoid insolvency. The fund was authorized to make this request by the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014, also known as the Kline-Miller Act—a law that has drawn a lot of ...