Just got a letter in the mail from my pension plan (I'm in Local 639 plan). In it they explained they are now required by DOL to report funding level as well as other info regarding the plan. I was happy to see that at the end of 2005 my plan was 82.7% funded. It will be interesting to hear from other plans what their funding level is.
The letter from the fund says that in 2005 the fund was only 82.7% funded, but Moody's Investment Service says in 2004 the fund was 110% funded. What happened?
Plan Name: Teamsters Local 639 Employers Pension Trust
Net Plan Assets: $703.2 million
Current Liability: $707 million
Funded Status: 110%
Total Annual Employer Contributions: $31.7 million
See page 15 of Moody's report to compare your plan to other Teamsters plans . . .
Ideally a fund should be as "overfunded" above 100% as possible so that when the inevitable adversities strike, the fund is still fully funded. 82.7% is about average for Teamsters funds, but the Western Fund, for example, is 100% funded and is still experiencing deep benefit cuts, and the Machinists Fund, which some of our mechanics are in, is 124% funded and even it has made limited benefit cuts. Aparently we must compare our funding ratios to an ideal of 130 or even 140%, not just to 100%!!!
Please see my lengthy discussion of the entire UPS/Teamsters pension situation here . . .
http://www.browncafe.com/community/threads/ups-subsidizing-non-ups-pensions.27725/
