AMO Pension Plan recovers from COVID-19 investment losses

The defined benefit AMO Pension Plan has recovered nearly all of its investment market losses triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic and remains in the 2006 Pension Protection Act's "green zone" at a funded status of about 85 percent.

According to the latest financial analysis, the AMO Pension Plan on May 18, 2020 was down only 1.7 percent since the tumultuous first quarter on Wall Street, when investment markets plummeted at record rates in response to the coronavirus national health emergency declared by President Trump. While market losses at different times reached 30 percent in the first quarter, the AMO Pension Plan's cumulative loss in this period never exceeded 13 percent.

The AMO Pension Plan's relatively remarkable recovery under unprecedented, devastating economic conditions was attributed to a rebalanced investment portfolio and daily coordinated focus by AMO Plans administration and support staff, the joint union-employer trustees of the AMO Pension Plan, AMO Plans counsel and the AMO Pension Plan's actuarial consultants.

AMO Pension Plan finances and administration are monitored routinely and in anticipation of greater investment market stability as the COVID-19 crisis eases.

Meanwhile, the one-time January 1, 2020 10-percent increase in earned monthly benefits for active deep-sea, Great Lakes and inland waters AMO members vested in the AMO Pension Plan remains in place.