Compliance February 1, 2006
PBGC Takes Furniture Chain's Plan
February 1, 2006 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The nation's
insurer of private-sector pension plans has assumed
responsibility for a pension plan covering nearly 2,000
former workers for a bankrupt Atlanta-based furniture store
chain.
Reported by Fred Schneyer
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) announced it had taken over The Rhodes Inc. Employees’ Pension Plan.
According to the agency, the PBGC stepped in because the pension plan faced abandonment after Rhodes sold substantially all of its assets and no purchaser was willing to assume the plan.
The PBGC said the plan is 56% funded with $14.9 million in assets to cover $26.5 million in benefit liabilities, according to its estimates. The agency expects to be liable for nearly all of the $11.6 million shortfall. The pension plan terminated as of August 16, 2005, and PBGC became trustee on January 12, 2006.