Unintended consequences. We’ve all experienced them, and (hopefully) they have made us more careful with subsequent decisions. Even better, they may have made us more likely to listen to wise counsel from those around us. After all, someone who has already walked the path can provide insights that may spare us from the potholes ahead.
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Congress, you’ve received just such advice. A recent letter addressed to Mitch McConnell, senate majority leader; Harry Reid, senate minority leader; Paul Ryan, speaker of the house; and Nancy Pelosi, house minority leader, came from the office of Julio Portalatin, president and CEO of Mercer LLC.
The letter is a result of increases in Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) premiums imposed in the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, and was delivered to express the firm’s concerns about—you guessed it—unintended consequences. To learn more, we spoke with Geoff Manville, a Mercer principal and leader of its government relations team. Manville spends considerable time on Capitol Hill immersed in activities and discussions involving employee benefits. Specifically, we asked him about the PBGC single-employer program.