Dear IUPAT Pension Plan Participant:

You’ve probably been hearing and reading a lot about changes made to the IUPAT Pension Plan lately, and now you’ve come to the web site to get more information.  Please read on and if you have any questions after reviewing what we’ve presented here, please feel free to contact us.

First, let us make one thing absolutely clear:  the current monthly pension benefit our retirees receive will not change under the adjustments made to the Plan.

We also want to make it clear that the Pension Plan is NOT in critical or RED status.  In fact, the Plan Board of Trustees authorized the changes you’ve been reading about to prevent our plan from dropping to the level financial health.

As of January 1, 2008, the Pension Fund was considered to be in “GREEN” status under the provisions in the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA).  This meant that the Fund was 82.9% funded and was in the highest status in which pension funds are categorized under the Pension Protection Act.  As a result of the stock market decline in 2008, our Pension Fund suffered losses in its investment portfolio of 23.6% (approximately $800 million).  This compares to a decline in the S & P 500 Index during 2008 of more than 37%.  Thus, although the Pension Fund’s portfolio performed much better than the stock market generally, these investment losses need to be considered and taken into account as a basis for future action by the Board of Trustees.  As of December 31, 2008, the Pension Fund had assets of $2.478 billion dollars.

Because of the investment losses during 2008, the Pension Fund moved from a “GREEN” status under the PPA to a “YELLOW” status.  The funded percentage of our Pension Fund, as a result of the losses sustained in the investment portfolio, is now 72.1%, compared with 82.9% one year earlier.  The movement of the funded percentage below 80% is what has caused the change in the Pension Fund status under provisions in the Pension Protection Act.

So, what changes did we make to the Plan and who is affected?  Click here to find out!

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