I.B.E.W. Local Union 481 Defined Contribution Plan and Trust

I.B.E.W. Local Union 481 Defined Contribution Plan and Trust

The IBEW Local Union 481 Defined Contribution Plan operates as a multi-employer pension trust, established through collective bargaining between the union and employers represented by the Central Indiana Chapter of the National Electrical Contractors Association. Administrative Manager David M. Ray and Assistant Administrative Manager Whitney King oversee the trust's operations. The plan is financed exclusively by employer contributions — no employee deferrals — and is governed by a joint Board of Trustees representing both labor and management interests. Asset allocation is participant-directed. On February 1, 2018, the plan converted from a trustee-directed model to a daily-valued self-directed platform, allowing individual electrical workers to select from a curated menu of investment options. The trust's investment lineup is not publicly disclosed, but its structure as a participant-directed DC plan implies exposure to core mutual funds, target-date strategies, and stable value instruments typical of union Taft-Hartley plans. The plan shares administrative resources with the affiliated Electrical Workers Benefit Trust Fund, which also manages health, defined benefit, and supplemental unemployment benefits for the same member population. The trust's scale is not publicly reported. It operates from a single office in Indianapolis, Indiana, serving IBEW Local 481 members across Central Indiana. The plan's administrative team also participates in litigation matters affecting the trust, as reflected in court filings where Whitney King has been involved in plan oversight. The trust maintains close operational integration with its affiliated health and welfare and defined benefit funds under the EWBTF umbrella. The plan's defining structural feature is its Taft-Hartley joint trusteeship — a governance model where union and management appointees share fiduciary responsibility, uncommon outside multi-employer plans. The 2018 conversion to participant direction represents a significant shift in investment philosophy, moving from institutional asset management to individual account responsibility.