Iron Workers Local 498 Defined Benefit Plan

Iron Workers Local 498 Defined Benefit Plan

The Iron Workers Local 498 Defined Benefit Plan is the retirement-savings vehicle for members of the Rockford, Illinois local, established in the same 1916 lineage as the union itself. The plan is one component of the broader benefits package negotiated under collective bargaining agreements, sitting alongside a health-and-welfare fund to form the economic safety net for active and retired ironworkers. Oversight falls to union officers including Business Manager Mark Richeson and President Paul Kauffman, who administer benefits from the Sockness Drive headquarters. As a multi-employer Taft-Hartley plan, the fund’s capital comes exclusively from employer contributions negotiated per hour worked — a structure that ties asset growth directly to construction activity in the Northern Illinois jurisdiction. Asset-class exposure is not publicly disclosed, though similar ironworker pension funds typically allocate across domestic equities, fixed income, real estate, and alternatives through institutional separate accounts or commingled vehicles. The plan’s beneficiaries have touched virtually every major steel-and-concrete job in the region, from the Faust Hotel to the BMO Harris Bank Center and the bridges spanning the Rock River watershed. No public Form 5500 or actuarial valuation was available to size the plan’s assets or funded status at the time of research. The union’s digital footprint is limited to its member-facing website, which prioritizes wage forms, apprentice programs, and contractor directories over institutional investor disclosures. The office staff — including Office Manager Dee Conerly — handles member inquiries in Rockford, and the local maintains ties to the District Council of Chicago and Vicinity and the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers. The plan’s structural distinction is its absolute alignment with a single trade and geography. Unlike statewide public pension funds or corporate 401(k) plans, this vehicle cannot diversify its liability pool — its solvency rises and falls with the collective bargaining power and hours logged by Local 498 members. That concentrated exposure makes its investment strategy, however conservative or opportunistic, an unusually pure reflection of the local construction economy.