Administration June 8, 2007

PBGC Issues New Statistics

August 18, 2006 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) has issued a new edition of its annual statistical reference work, the Pension Insurance Data Book 2005.
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Statistics from the new data book include:

  • The PBGC’s total deficit is more than $23 billion, including $22.8 billion from the single-employer program and $335 million from the multi-employer program.
  • The number of insured plans in its single-employer program was around 28,800, down from around 29,600 as of 2004.
  • In 2005, the PBGC disbursed almost $3.7 billion in benefits payments to around 698,000 retirees.

The book provides those interested in the federal pension insurance program with detailed statistics for its two programs covering single-employer and multi-employer pension plans. For each of its programs, the book includes detailed statistics from as far back as 1975.

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Additionally, the 2005 edition includes an essay on measuring pension funding. The article explains how and why different methods and assumptions may be used by the PBGC and private-sector plan sponsors to value plan assets and liabilities and discusses advantages and shortcomings in the various methods for gauging a pension plan’s financial health.

Single copies of the data book may be obtained by writing to PBGC Data Book, Room 12108, 1200 K Street NW, Washington, DC 20005-4026 or by faxing (202) 326-4344.

The data book is also available here .

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