As the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 comes closer to reality for tens of thousands of retirees, new legislation is emerging from both sides of the political aisle that would give union members the final say in authorizing clawbacks in their pensions.
Passed as a rider to the omnibus spending bill in the eleventh hour of the last Congressional session, the controversial law gives trustees to multiemployer plans in “critical and declining status,” which means they are expected to be insolvent in the next 15 years, power to cut promised pension payments of active and retired participants.
Those reductions have to be approved by the Treasury Department, and can be made only after sponsors and trustees have taken all reasonable measures apart from reducing benefits, like increasing sponsor and participant contributions, to avoid insolvency.
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Nick Thornton
Nick Thornton is a financial writer covering retirement and health care issues for BenefitsPRO and ALM Media. He greatly enjoys learning from the vast minds in the legal, academic, advisory and money management communities when covering the retirement space. He's also written on international marketing trends, financial institution risk management, defense and energy issues, the restaurant industry in New York City, surfing, cigars, rum, travel, and fishing. When not writing, he's pushing into some land or water.
