Pension Action Center
Gerontology Institute
University of Massachusetts Boston
Project’s Persistence
Helps Others Besides Its Own
Client
Some of the cases
handled by the New
England Pension
Assistance Project are
less important for the
amount of money involved
than for the principle
that retired workers
ought to get whatever
money is due to them.
In one recent case, the
Project is proud of
having obtained a modest
level of past-due
payments, not only for
its original client but
also for at least two
dozen other former
employees of the same
now-bankrupt firm.
The client was referred
in 2000 by the U.S.
Department of Labor,
which often refers
difficult cases to the
Pension Project. The
71-year-old client had
been trying since 1995
to collect his money
from the profit-sharing
plan of a company that
had employed him for
several years in the
early 1990s.
Profit-sharing plans are
not covered by the
federal Pension Benefit
Guaranty Corporation (PBGC),
which is a payer of last
resort for certain types
of pension plans.
However, ERISA, the
Employee Retirement
Income Security Act of
1974, requires that
profit-sharing funds be
set aside and shielded
from any bankruptcy
proceeding.
“A Stone Wall”
At first, says Jack
Pizer, coordinator of
Massachusetts cases for
the Pension Project, “we
ran into a stone wall.
We couldn’t go to PBGC,
and we couldn’t find the
administrator of the
profit-sharing plan.”
Renee Summers, the
Pension Project
volunteer assigned to
the case, persisted
through a seemingly
unending series of
obstacles. Once she was
finally able to locate
the third-party payer
who held the funds, she
found that this company
was not authorized to
actually pay out any
money. Moreover, the
Project’s client was not
even on the list of
those who were eligible
to collect.
Eventually, Summers and
the client were able to
document his
eligibility. Still, his
money (and that of about
forty others) seemed to
be locked up. The
solution came from
Attorney Gail Simon, who
had recently offered to
volunteer for the
Project. (She had seen
the Project’s name in a
list of pro bono
opportunities maintained
by the Massachusetts Bar
Association.)
Once she learned the
details of the case,
Simon devised a plan by
which the third-party
payer could legally be
authorized to disburse
the funds.
Helping the Others
The Project’s client
collected his money in
July 2002. But that
left the other former
employees out in the
cold. “None of these
people even knew about
this,” Pizer says.
Instead of considering
the case closed, Summers
arranged for the others
to be notified, even
finding new addresses
for a number of those
whose letters came back
marked “Addressee
Unknown.”
Of those who responded
to a follow-up letter,
26 of the former
employees had received
payments. The actual
amounts were not huge –
they have come to a
littleover $20,000 total
– but it is money that
would never have been
received without the
Project’s work.
Project’s Work Adds Up
·
2,800 workers and
retirees helped
·
$12.6 million in
benefits recovered
“I’m very, very thankful
for Renee’s persistence
in this case,” Pizer
says. “It finally came
to fruition.”
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