PBGC increases maximum benefit for retirees in failed pension plans

The maximum benefit the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. will guarantee to participants who retire at 65 in plans that the agency takes over next year will be $60,136, a 1.7% increase over the 2014 maximum, the PBGC said Monday.

Changes in the maximum benefit guarantee are linked to wage inflation.

Only a small percentage of participants in failed pension plans taken over by the PBGC were entitled under their employment-based plans to benefits bigger than those guaranteed by the agency. A 2006 PBGC study found that 85% of participants in those plans received from the PBGC the full amount of the benefit they had earned from their former employer's pension plan.