Teamsters Local 814 Pension Fund

Teamsters Local 814 Pension Fund

The Teamsters Local 814 Pension Fund operates as a multiemployer defined-benefit plan covering union members in the New York metropolitan area. Established to support workers in sectors including construction supply and welding, the fund fell into critical and declining status by 2010, triggering federally mandated rehabilitation measures overseen by a board of union and employer trustees — including John Zak of Airweld, Inc., Anthony Zapulla of McKinney Welding Supply Co., and Allen Swerdlick of Kamco Supply Corporation. The fund maintains a compact portfolio with a documented tilt toward real assets and private markets. Altss research identifies two specific institutional commitments: the JP Morgan Strategic Property Fund, a core mixed-use real estate vehicle, and the Partners Group Private Equity DC Collective Investment Trust, suggesting a barbelled approach of stabilized income-generating property paired with illiquid private equity exposure. Geographic focus is regional, centered on the Tri-State area where contributing employers operate, though the underlying fund managers deploy nationally. The pension fund is governed by a joint board of union and employer representatives, with trustees drawn directly from the bargaining-unit companies. Vice President Edward Freyta oversees board functions alongside trustees Phil Puma and Adam Garcia, with Dan Belmonte serving as plan sponsor. The fund operates under a rehabilitation plan filed with the U.S. Department of Labor, which as of 2010 projected a funding deficiency within five years absent corrective action — a status that shapes every allocation decision and limits appetite for uncorrelated risk. The fund's most telling structural feature is its survival posture. Unlike well-funded corporate or public plans that pursue alpha through venture and aggressive private credit, Teamsters Local 814 allocates within the constraints of a rehabilitation schedule. That means every commitment is stress-tested against statutory funding improvement targets, and the trustee roster — populated by operating executives from contributing employers — anchors investment decisions in the practical economics of the local businesses whose workers depend on the plan.