PBGC Picks up Insurance Company's Pension Plan

October 21, 2004 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), an insurer of private sector defined benefit retirement plans, has announced that it will assume responsibility for the pensions of 12,000 employees of Lumbermens Mutual Casualty Co.

>Lumbermens, a property-casualty insurer and the parent company to Kemper Insurance Corp., is currently under the long-term administrative supervision of the Illinois Department of Insurance. Its pension benefits plan, the Kemper Retirement Plan, is 48% funded with liabilities of $1.055 billion, according to the PBGC. The agency expects to pick up $529 million of the $540 million shortfall in what news reports said was the largest insurer-sponsored pension picked up by the PBGC. The pension plan ended effective Thursday.

>After the PBGC becomes the trustee to the plan, which is expected within a few weeks, the agency will send trusteeship notifications letters to plan participants.

Participants with questions should go to the PBGC website at www.pbgc.gov .

«