Here's how to manage a pension fund

With all the underfunded pension news that has been in the paper lately, I want to praise and thank the four management and four union trustees of Local Union No. 9 I.B.E.W. and Outside Contractors Pension Fund.

The trustees have done a wonderful job of maintaining a 100 percent funding level while also increasing the benefit levels for current and future retirees. This pension plan has no COLA provision, but in the eight years that I have been retired, the trustees have increased the pension benefit five times. My current pension benefit is 49 percent greater than when I retired eight years ago.

The pension plan uses an investment consultant, has an annual actuary review and report and an annual certified audit. The trustees are unpaid and devote considerable time and effort to fulfill their fiduciary duty.

This is how a pension fund is supposed to be run. I cannot understand how the trustees, actuaries and auditors of these public pension plans are not held to their fiduciary responsibilities.

They, and the insurance company that writes the fiduciary insurance policy, should be held financially responsible for their malfeasance.

James J. Dubinski

Rolling Meadows