PBGC Issues New Solvency Projections

The projected insolvency date for the insurance program for multiemployer pension plans, which cover more than 10 million Americans, has been delayed by three years, according to the FY 2014 Projections Report released by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC).

The risk of program insolvency has decreased over the near term due primarily to the new premium revenues anticipated under the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 (MPRA). It is more likely than not that the program’s assets will be depleted in 2025, compared with 2022 in last year’s report, and the risk of insolvency grows rapidly thereafter.

Projections for the PBGC’s insurance program for single-employer plans, which cover about 31 million people, show that the program’s financial condition continues to be likely to improve and conclude that it is highly unlikely to run out of funds in the next 10 years. PBGC modeled 5,000 simulations for the 2014 Projections Report, and none showed that the program would be unable to pay the benefits it owes in 2025.

The Projections Report is PBGC’s annual actuarial evaluation of its future operations and financial status. Its projections are not predictions, but rather provide a range of estimates of the future status of insured pension plans and their effect on PBGC’s financial condition, based on hundreds of different economic scenarios.