Practice Management
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) reports that its single-employer program continues to show vitality, while its multiemployer program remains mired in red ink. The fresh data comes in the recent update to the PBGC’s Pension Insurance Data Tables, which includes data from 2018 and some information from 2019.
Single-Employer Program
The PBGC reports that its major findings concerning the single-employer program include the following:
The PBGC reports that its major findings concerning the single-employer program include the following:
- A substantial majority (84%) of participants received 100% of the vested benefits they had earned under their plans.
- 16% of vested participants had benefits reduced by one or more of the limitations considered in the current study.
- For all participants affected by a limitation, the average reduction in the value of plan benefits was 24%.
- For retirees affected by a limitation, the average reduction in value was 19%.
- 89% of reductions in the value of plan benefits were concentrated in just 10 plans.
- 59% of the plans in this study had at least one participant whose benefits were reduced by one or more primary limitation provisions.
- Three limitations—the accrued-at-normal limitation, the maximum insurance limitation, and the phase-in limitation—accounted for almost all of the participant benefit reductions. For participants with a reduction in vested benefits, these three major limitations reduced the value of benefits by an average of 23%, compared with 24% for all limitations studied.
Net Financial Position. The single-employer program had a positive net financial position in 2018, the first time assets exceeded liabilities since 2001. There was further improvement in 2019.
| Fiscal Year | Assets | Liabilities | Net Position |
| 2017 | $106,196,000,000 | $117,110,000,000 | -$10,914,000,000 |
| 2018 | $109,941,000,000 | $107,502,000,000 | +$2,439,000,000 |
| 2019 | $128,068,000,000 | $119,412,000,000 | +$8,656,000,000 |
Premium Revenue, Benefits Payments and Expenses. Revenue exceeded benefits payments in 2016 and 2017 for the first time since 1999. Payments exceeded revenues taken in in 2018, but a positive balance returned in 2019. However, note that despite revenues exceeding benefits payments, when administrative and investment expenses are factored in there still is a negative balance in 2019 as there was in 2018.
| Fiscal Year | Total Premium Balance | Benefit Payments | Administrative and Investment Expenses | Premiums Less Benefits Paid and Expenses |
| 2017 | $6,739,000,000 | $5,669,000,000 | $481,000,000 | +$559,000,000 |
| 2018 | $5,518,000,000 | $5,792,000,000 | $489,000,000 | -$763,000,000 |
| 2019 | $6,352,000,000 | $6,020,000,000 | $488,000,000 | -$156,000,000 |
Claims. In 2018, claims made from the single-employer program amounted to $1,427,522,102; 64.3% of those claims came from the top 10 firms that made claims on the program, and 35.7% from the rest.
Multiemployer Program
Net Financial Position. The results in 2018 were an improvement over 2017, although a negative balance remained. The net financial position worsened in 2019.
| Fiscal Year | Assets | Liabilities | Net Position |
| 2017 | $2,262,000,000 | $67,314,000,000 | -$65,052,000,000 |
| 2018 | $2,311,000,000 | $56,187,000,000 | -$53,876,000,000 |
| 2019 | $2,858,000,000 | $68,024,000,000 | -$65,166,000,000 |
Full Data
The collection of current and prior years’ PBGC Data Tables are available here.
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