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Drywall Tapers Insurance Fund
The Drywall Tapers Insurance Fund operates as a joint labor-management welfare benefit plan, established to provide health and dental benefits to eligible...
Drywall Tapers Insurance Fund
The Drywall Tapers Insurance Fund operates as a joint labor-management welfare benefit plan, established to provide health and dental benefits to eligible members of the Drywall Tapers and Pointers of Greater New York Local Union 1974. Local Union 1974 sits under District Council 9 of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT), representing workers who finish interior surfaces across New York City's commercial and residential construction markets. The fund is governed by a board of trustees that includes named fiduciaries Joseph Azzopardi, John Delollis, and Peter Cafiero. As a multiemployer welfare plan, the fund's deployment strategy is liability-driven, not return-seeking in a traditional endowment sense. The bulk of its assets exist to meet current and projected benefit obligations — dental services, medical claims, and welfare payments — for a closed universe of union participants. Unlike a pension fund that accumulates long-term investment reserves, a welfare fund operates with a shorter-duration posture. The fund's most notable asset outside its claims-paying reserves is its participation as a plaintiff in the National Prescription Opiate Litigation in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. That multi-district litigation consolidated thousands of lawsuits by municipalities, hospitals, and union health plans seeking to recover costs from opioid manufacturers and distributors for the epidemic's impact on their beneficiary populations. The fund is not known to maintain a separate defined-benefit pension vehicle with a diversified portfolio of public equities, fixed income, or alternative assets. Its administrative presence in Long Island City places it within the dense construction union benefits ecosystem serving New York City's five boroughs. No dedicated investment staff, published RFPs, or external manager rosters are publicly associated with the entity. Structurally, the fund represents the narrowest form of institutional capital — a single-craft, single-geography welfare plan that pools employer contributions and pays out health claims. Its governance is embedded in the collective bargaining agreements between the union and signatory contractors. The opioid litigation claim introduces a contingent recovery asset that is uncommon for welfare plans of this scale, potentially creating a one-time liquidity event that would require discrete fiduciary decisions about benefit enhancement or reserve allocation.
General information
Firm type
Pension Fund
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Long Island City
Corporate office
Long Island City, NY, United States
Principals
Joseph Azzopardi
Trustee
John Delollis
Trustee
Peter Cafiero
Trustee
Frequently asked questions
What is the Drywall Tapers Insurance Fund and who does it serve?
It is a multiemployer welfare benefit plan that provides health and dental benefits to eligible members of the Drywall Tapers and Pointers of Greater New York Local Union 1974. The fund operates under the umbrella of IUPAT District Council 9 and is governed by a board of trustees that includes Joseph Azzopardi, John Delollis, and Peter Cafiero. It exists to pay claims, not to build a perpetual endowment.
How is this fund different from a typical pension fund that allocates to private equity and venture capital?
This is a welfare fund, not a pension fund. It pools employer contributions to pay current health and dental claims for working and retired union members. The investment horizon is short-duration and liability-matching — the fund does not publicly report a diversified long-term portfolio of public equities, fixed income, or alternative assets. Allocators seeking a traditional LP will not find one here.
What is the fund's involvement in the National Prescription Opiate Litigation?
The fund is a plaintiff in the multi-district opioid litigation in the Northern District of Ohio, which consolidated thousands of cases against pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors. Union health plans like this one argue they paid substantial medical costs treating opioid addiction among their covered members. Any recovery would represent a contingent, one-time asset for the fund.
Who makes investment decisions for the fund?
There is no publicly identified investment committee or internal investment staff. The board of trustees, composed of both union and employer representatives, makes fiduciary decisions. Given the fund's structure as a welfare plan paying current-period claims, its assets are likely managed through insurance contracts, cash reserves, and possibly short-duration fixed-income instruments rather than a discretionary portfolio.
Does the fund maintain any relationship with external asset managers or co-investment platforms?
No external manager relationships, co-investment platforms, or discretionary mandates are publicly disclosed. The fund has not issued RFPs, does not appear in consultant databases as an active allocator, and is not known to participate in private markets fund commitments. Its investment posture is almost entirely consumed by the claims-paying function.
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
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