Carter v. Pension Plan of A. Finkl & Sons Co.

MANION, Circuit Judge.

When a qualified pension plan decides to terminate, it must follow a careful and exacting process that ends with the plan purchasing annuities for all its beneficiaries from a third-party private insurance company. The A. FinH & Sons Pension Plan decided to voluntarily terminate, but after going through some extensive initial steps, it realized that it would be too expensive and formally withdrew from the process. At the heart of its decision was an amendment to the Plan that provided that if the Plan terminated, the employees could keep working at Finkl while still…