Proposed Amendments to the Welfare and Pension Plans Disclosure Act

Proposals to regulate private pension and deferred profit-sharing plans are by no means new to Congress. With the rapid growth in size, number and complexity of such plans in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s, Congress began to give increasingly close attention to their defects and, particularly, to their mismanagement. The first congressional attempt to reduce the instances of private pension plan mismanagement occurred in 1958 when Congress enacted the Welfare and Pension Plans Disclosure Act. The Act was amended once in 1962, and further proposed amendments are presently before the Congress. This note will examine two of the proposed amendments to the Welfare and Pension Plans Disclosure Act which were introduced in the 91st Congress. Emphasis will be placed upon the need for further federal regulation of private pension plans and the strengths and weaknesses of the proposed legislation.