Pension Fund

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Pension Plan of the Welfare & Pension Fund Mid-Jersey Trucking

Ronald Lake oversees a $328M (est.) single-strategy mezzanine pension plan for Teamsters Local 701 members, tied to the trucking industry.

Pension Plan of the Welfare & Pension Fund Mid-Jersey Trucking

The pension plan was established in 1958 to provide retirement, disability and death benefits for members of Teamsters Local 701, a North Brunswick, New Jersey-based union chartered in 1952. It is a multi-employer plan, meaning contributions come from numerous employers in the trucking, warehouse and municipal sectors that have signed collective bargaining agreements with the local. A significant historical source of those contributions is Yellow Corporation, formerly YRC Worldwide Inc., which has a public record of contribution deferral agreements and related withdrawal liability litigation with the fund. Strategically, the plan operates as a single-strategy mezzanine investor. It concentrates this posture to generate yield, a decision consistent with the liquidity and return targets of a mature pension plan navigating long-duration liabilities. The firm deploys across the United States. Its relationships extend through the Teamsters network, sharing office facilities and personnel with related funds including the Bakery Drivers Local 194 Pension Fund and Teamsters Local 418 Pension Fund, creating a pooled operating model for plan administration. The plan operates from a fund office it owns at 2003 US Route 130, North Brunswick. Team members include President Ronald Lake, who also serves as Recording Secretary for the umbrella network Teamsters Joint Council 73, and Fund Manager Giancarlo Prezioso. A direct real-asset holding of this structure is the Fund Office Building in North Brunswick. A structural differentiator is its extreme strategy concentration alongside a distressed-base employer base. Most pension funds diversify across equity, fixed income, real assets, and alternatives. Instead, the Mid-Jersey Trucking fund runs as a near-pure mezzanine shop, a posture that ties its health tightly to the credit performance of the specific middle-market borrowers it backs and the viability of its contributing employers like Yellow Corporation, which filed for bankruptcy in 2023.

General information

Firm type

Pension Fund

Year founded

1958

AUM

$328M (Altss estimate)

Location

Region

North America

Country

United States

City

North Brunswick

Corporate office

2003 US Route 130, Suite A, North Brunswick, NJ 08902

Principals

Ronald Lake

President, Teamsters Local 701; Authorized Trustee of the Pension Fund

Giancarlo Prezioso

Fund Manager, Teamsters Local 701 Benefit Funds

Sector focus

Mezzanine

Frequently asked questions

Who runs investment decisions at Pension Plan of the Welfare & Pension Fund Mid-Jersey Trucking?

Fund Manager Giancarlo Prezioso manages the benefit funds for Teamsters Local 701. The authorized trustee for the pension plan is Ronald Lake, who is also President of Teamsters Local 701 and Recording Secretary for Joint Council 73. Day-to-day investment execution falls under Prezioso's purview while Lake holds ultimate fiduciary authority over plan assets.

How is this pension plan related to Teamsters Local 701?

It is a multi-employer defined-benefit plan directly covering the members of Teamsters Local 701, a labor union representing truck drivers, warehouse workers, sanitation workers and municipal employees in New Jersey. The union and the fund share leadership: Ronald Lake is both union president and an authorized plan trustee, and the plan operates from the same facility as the union's benefit fund office, creating an integrated administrative structure.

Is the plan fully funded and what are its primary risks?

Specific funded-status ratios are not publicly disclosed. The plan's primary risk is employer concentration: a major contributing employer, Yellow Corporation, filed for bankruptcy in 2023, a development that directly threatens the plan's contribution stream through legacy contribution deferrals and withdrawal-liability litigation. Its secondary risk is the strategy-concentration of holding a near-pure mezzanine portfolio without broad diversification across asset classes.

Does the fund participate in fund commitments or only direct deals?

The plan's strategy is categorized exclusively as mezzanine, which typically involves direct lending and subordinated debt investments in middle-market companies. There is no disclosed allocation to third-party private equity funds, fund-of-funds, or traditional public market instruments, indicating a direct-only investment posture designed to maximize current income.

Which specific companies or funds does the pension plan invest in?

The fund does not publicly disclose a detailed portfolio listing. Its known economic relationships are with the contributing employers to the multi-employer plan, most notably the freight carrier Yellow Corporation. Because the fund operates a direct mezzanine strategy, its assets consist of private credit instruments rather than marked-to-market public equities, but the individual borrowers are not named in public documents.

How is the fund connected to other Teamster pension plans in New Jersey?

The Mid-Jersey Trucking fund shares common office facilities and personnel with the Bakery Drivers Local 194 Pension Fund and the Teamsters Local 418 Pension Fund. This arrangement creates an operational cluster where administrative resources are pooled. Ronald Lake's role as Recording Secretary for Joint Council 73 further ties the governance of the Mid-Jersey plan into the broader network of Teamster-affiliated benefit funds in the region.

What is the fund's known posture on co-investments alongside external GPs?

Given the plan's concentrated mezzanine mandate and the absence of any disclosed fund-of-funds or GP relationships, it does not appear to operate a co-investment program alongside external sponsors. The strategy is structured as a direct lending book rather than a commingled-fund allocation model, allowing the internal investment team to retain full discretion over credit selection without reliance on outside general partners.

Profile maintained by 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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