Federal Agencies on Aging

The Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration in the Department of Labor is charged with enforcing provisions of a very important piece of federal legislation, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), which establishes standards designed to protect private pension funds from collapse or insolvency. In this role it is responsible for protecting $4.3 trillion in pension assets owned by 90 million participants in 700,000 pension plans (www.dol.gov/dol/pwba/public/pubs/factsht1.htm). Prior to ERISA's enactment, several major plans had collapsed, leaving retired participants in those plans unprotected. Changes in the private pension world have made administration of ERISA increasingly complicated, and plans have been presented on ways to simplify its administration (Perun and Steuerle).

ERISA established the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), which guarantees certain benefits in the type of pension plan known as a defined benefit plan. PBGC is a federal government corporation established by Title IV of ERISA "to encourage the growth of defined benefit plans, provide timely and uninterrupted payment of benefits, and maintain pension insurance premiums at the lowest level necessary to carry out the Corporation's obligations" (www.pbgc.gov/ABOUT.htm).