From November1, 2004 to November 1, 2005 the Minnesota office of the Upper Midwest Pension Rights Project been instrumental in recovering a total of almost $800,000 worth of pension benefits on behalf of our clients either directly or via referral to private attorneys.  The following cases illustrate recent cases that have resulted in benefits for a clients from the Minnesota office:

• A woman contacted us because she was fairly certain she was eligible for a pension from her former employer but didn't know how to contact the employer since they were bought by another company. One of our Minnesota Justice Foundation (MJF) law student volunteers located the plan administator for the former company from an internet search. We were then told the client would receive about $1500 but that the amount was fixed, and she was not entitled to interest on that amount, even though she should have recieved it five years ago when she was laid off and the company went into bankruptcy. With the help of a volunteer actuary project staff determined that according to ERISA rules she was entitled to an additional $3000, which was the "present value" of the benefit she was entitled to so many years ago.After receiving a letter from the project pointing out this error in calculation the plan administrator issued a check for the full $4,500. 
• A machinist was eligible for a disability pension within the time frame required by his pension plan’s rules, but did not realize he could have applied for a disability pension until several years later. The plan trustees denied his initial application for a disability pension. According to the plan rules, a disability pension paid significantly higher monthly benefits than any other pension he was eligible for, at his age. Project staff were able to assist the pensioner in gathering relevant documents and formulate an appeal to the plan trustees. They successfully argued that according to plan rules he was still eligible to retroactively apply for the disability payment, as long as he could prove that he was permanently and totally disabled within the required timeframe, even though he actually applied for the pension at a later date.
• A bridge construction worker belonged to a union that signed on to a reciprocal agreement with other local unions across the country. One of the locals refused to follow the reciprocal agreement and would not credit him with early retirement benefits for his work affiliated with that local. With the assistance of the Pension Rights Center in Washington D.C, staff were able to appeal the local union’s decision and obtain a ruling in favor of the client.
• A former spouse of a union member was awarded survivor benefits from her husband’s pension in her divorce. After her former spouse passed away, the pension plan administrator wrote to her telling her she was no longer eligible for payments from her former spouse’s pension. After reviewing the relevant material, it was clear to project staff that the plan administrator was mistaken, and a letter was written to the plan trustees outlining the reasons why the spouse was eligible for continued payments. As a result, the union quickly resumed the annuity payments.
• In two different union-related cases the former employees were told that they had just under the number of required service credits to qualify for a vested pension. After reviewing relevant employment-related documents such as union membership cards, tax returns showing union dues from the 1960’s, and detailed Social Security earning statements, project staff found evidence of additional credits the men  were entitled to and discovered one of the men had additional service credit earned from a subsequent job as well.
• In a typical “lost pension” case a woman left her management job in 1986 due to a layoff. The trucking company she worked for went bankrupt several years later. When she  reached retirement age she did not know who to contact to collect the pension she believed she earned. An MJF volunteer for the project located some truckers formerly employed by the company through a web search, who suggested contacting the Teamster’s Union office located in the town where the former company was incorporated. There was a former employee of the trucking company currently working at the union office who gave a UMPRP staff person the name of a lawyer in town who used to be on the trucking company’s board of directors. The lawyer (who also was interested in tracking down the pension plan administrator) heard that Federal Express bought the company after the bankruptcy. Federal Express referred the staff person to the pension plan administrator. After nine months of exchanging letters and telephone calls with the plan administrator, the client began receiving her pension.

There are many other situations, not mentioned, where we have been able to help. Additionally, the project regularly refers cases to private attorneys when the client’s needs extend beyond the services the project can provide. Many of those cases have ultimately resulted in a benefit for the client.

There are also many other cases we handle where we are not able to assist the pensioner in obtaining the desired benefit. We have found, however, that people feel they have benefited from a sense of resolution when they know that someone has made a comprehensive investigation on their behalf to determine the appropriateness of the benefit denial.