Assets in the Teamsters Central States, Southeast & Southwest Areas Pension Fund, Rosemont, Ill., dropped to $10.4 billion in 2020, according to a financial report filed by a court-appointed overseer in March.
The pension fund's 2019 Form 5500 reported assets of $12.3 billion and $31 billion in unfunded liabilities. A Form 5500 for 2020 has not been filed.
Overseer David Coar's quarterly report was obtained by the Teamsters for a Democratic Union.
It shows that for the year ended Dec. 31, 2020, Central States took in $659 million in employer contributions, and paid out $2.84 billion in benefits.
Investment returns earned $323 million, or roughly 3%. The allocation is 99% fixed income and 1% cash.
The report also noted that while the pension fund suffered serious investment losses in 2008, it enjoyed investment gains in recent years, except for -0.76% in 2018. Investments returned 12.74% in 2017, 10.55% in 2019 and 2.93% (unaudited) in 2020.
According to pension fund staff reports provided to the overseer, "the continuing downward pressure on fund assets is largely due to the fund's current annual operating deficit of more than $2 billion per year," with the pension fund each year paying $2 billion more in benefits than it collects in contributions, the overseer report said.
Central States has a roughly 4-1 ratio of retirees to active workers.
