Compliance September 18, 2008

PBGC Takes Over Rand McNally Plan

September 18, 2008 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), the nation's private-sector pension insurer, has assumed responsibility for the pension plan that covers about 760 former employees of publisher Rand McNally & Co., of Skokie, Illinois.
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The PBGC said in a news announcement that it stepped in because the pension plan would be unable to pay benefits when due and faced abandonment following the sale of substantially all the company’s assets.

According to PBGC estimates, the Rand McNally & Co. Pension Plan is about 72% funded, with assets of $19 million to cover about $26.4 million in benefit liabilities. The agency expects to be responsible for the entire $7.3 million shortfall.

The agency will use plan assets and PBGC insurance funds to pay guaranteed benefits earned under the plan, which ended on December 6. The PBGC became trustee of the plan on August 14.

Rand McNally filed for Chapter 11 protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Chicago in February 2003. Rand McNally emerged from bankruptcy in May 2003. On Dec. 6, 2007, the company’s assets, including its trade name, were sold to Patriarch Partners LLC to satisfy obligations to secured creditors. The pension plan was not assumed in the transaction.

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