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Wednesday, November 4, 2009
SEI likes Congress plan to ease pension cost

Jon Waite, chief actuary at mutual fund and investment tech purveyor SEI Corp.'s institutional group out in Oaks, says the bipartisan pension reform act rolled out by US Reps Earl Pomeroy, D-ND, and Pat Tiberi, R-Ohio, would ease pressure on cash-strapped U.S. employers to bail out pension funds hurt by last year's stock market meltdown.

Pomery-Tiberi "stretches out" the timetable for employers and multi-employer, union-run plans to raise new money to fund future liabilities "so the funding requirements are relieved, temporarily, until the economy is stabilized," Waite told me.

"It gives them the ability to use the limited cash and capital they have to help grow their businesses and grow their staff rolls," instead of covering last year's stock market losses, part of which have already been replenished by the market recovery. It also boosts the minimum guarantee for some union plans backed by the Pension Benefit and Guaranty Corp. to $20,000 a year, from the current $13,000.

Pomeroy and Tiberi say they have broad support from business and labor. Waite says the bill has to get through both the Ways and Means and the Health, Labor and Pension committees. "I think it's something the leadership wants to get passed, as well as the plan sponsors," Waite told me. 

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About Joseph N. DiStefano
Joseph N. DiStefano writes this blog to feed his PhillyDeals column, which is printed in the business pages of The Philadelphia Inquirer every Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Joe has worked at the Inquirer, mostly, since 1988. He has also written for Bloomberg and Gannett, authored the book Comcasted, majored in economics at Penn, and fathered six children. Reach Joe at 215-854-5194 and JoeD@phillynews.com

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