PBGC Alert - Terrence Deneen To Step Down

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation ("PBGC") issued a press release stating that Terrence M. Deneen, PBGC's veteran Chief Insurance Program Officer, has announced plans to retire from public service in mid-January. PBGC is the federal agency that guarantees payment of private pension benefits when companies and pension plans fail. It purports to protect some 44 million Americans in over 29,000 private defined benefit pension plans. The PBGC pays benefits using insurance premiums and assets and other recoveries from plans and their sponsors; it receives no taxpayer funds. New PBGC Director Josh Gotbaum stated in the press release that “Terry Deneen has provided outstanding leadership,” and that “[w]e will miss his wise counsel and his extraordinary breadth of experience with both bankruptcy and pensions." Mr. Gotbaum added that, filling Mr. Deneen's shoes will be challenging. In his current post since 2005, Mr. Deneen oversees a wide range of risk management and loss mitigation functions. He leads teams of financial analysts, lawyers and actuaries who have achieved great success in negotiating recoveries in bankruptcies and corporate restructurings. He administers a multiemployer insurance division that is currently focused on remediating the complex problems of troubled multiemployer plans. Mr. Deneen also supervises the PBGC professionals who monitor and analyze risks to corporate plan sponsors and work with companies to secure financial protection for their plans.