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UA Plumbers & Steamfitters Local 22 Pension Plan
The United Association of Plumbers & Steamfitters Local 22 Pension Plan is a defined-benefit pension plan serving members of Local 22, a union covering...
UA Plumbers & Steamfitters Local 22 Pension Plan
The United Association of Plumbers & Steamfitters Local 22 Pension Plan is a defined-benefit pension plan serving members of Local 22, a union covering plumbing, pipefitting, and HVAC service workers primarily in Erie, Niagara, and surrounding counties. It forms part of the U.A. Plumbers & Steamfitters Local 22 Benefit Funds, a broader collection of trust funds that also provides health and annuity benefits. The pension plan is governed by a joint board of trustees—half appointed by the union and half by contributing employers—whose fiduciary duty is to ensure the plan can meet its actuarial obligations to current retirees and vested participants over multi-decade horizons. The plan builds its portfolio across a fairly standard institutional mix for a mid-sized Taft-Hartley fund, including public equities and fixed income but increasingly characterized by private-market allocations typical of plans seeking enhanced returns to close funding gaps. Investment policy tends to emphasize capital preservation and stable, risk-adjusted returns. Allocations commonly observed in similar pension vehicles include core and core-plus real estate, infrastructure debt and equity, private credit, and middle-market private equity. Geographic exposure is overwhelmingly domestic, consistent with the local membership base. Specific external manager relationships are not publicly disclosed, though funds of this profile frequently deploy capital via investment consultants and fund-of-funds structures rather than large internal teams. Publicly available data on the plan's precise asset size, team headcount, or specific outside managers remains absent. The plan's administrative office is located at the Local 22 union hall in West Seneca. The fund's primary operating footprint is Western New York, where its participant base lives and works, although investment reach likely spans national private-market partnerships. Recent Form 5500 filings, a common source for Taft-Hartley AUM and service-provider information, would provide the clearest picture of its current scale and advisory relationships. Multi-employer plans like Local 22 occupy a distinctive structural position in institutional capital. Unlike corporate or public pension funds, they are governed by trustees representing both labor and management, creating a negotiation dynamic in asset allocation that often skews conservative. Decisions typically require consensus between the two sides, which shapes fee sensitivity and manager selection. The mandate is longevity: outlast any single employer's business cycle and deliver promised benefits to members who spend careers moving between contributing contractors.
General information
Firm type
Pension Fund
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
West Seneca
Corporate office
West Seneca, NY, United States
Principals
Rich Evans
Business Manager
Dan Frankowski
Lou Rodriguez
Jeff Zubler
Steve Hoover
Funds Office
Brittany DeCarlo
Administrative Assistant
Vanessa Macey
Joel Brock
Training Department
Adam Radwan
Training Department
Barbara Zellner
Andrea Sharp
Amanda Land
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who governs the investment decisions at the Local 22 Pension Plan?
The plan is governed by a joint board of trustees composed of an equal number of representatives from UA Local 22 and the signatory contractor associations. This board holds fiduciary responsibility for asset allocation, manager selection, and overall plan administration. The trustees typically retain an investment consultant to advise on strategy and due diligence, though the specific consultant's identity is not currently a public record. Day-to-day portfolio management is outsourced to external investment managers.
How does a Taft-Hartley plan's structure influence its investment posture?
As a multi-employer Taft-Hartley plan, the fund sits at the intersection of labor and management interests, which creates a structurally conservative governance framework. Major investment decisions require consensus between union and employer trustees. This dynamic often produces a preference for transparent, fee-sensitive strategies and a measured pace of adoption for newer alternative asset classes. The plan's long-dated liability stream—paying pensions for the lifetime of retired members—supports allocations to illiquid asset classes like private equity and infrastructure, albeit with a focus on income-producing and core assets.
Which investment managers are known to work with this fund?
No specific external investment manager relationships have been publicly disclosed by the plan or reported in financial press. Like many pension plans of its size, the Local 22 fund is likely to invest through commingled vehicles, fund-of-funds, and separate accounts. Hiring is typically documented in board meeting minutes, which are not published online but may be accessible through public-records requests. The plan's most recent Form 5500 filing, available via the Department of Labor's EFAST system, would list its service providers.
What geographic regions does the plan's portfolio cover?
The investment portfolio's stated geographic coverage is not explicitly disclosed in public materials. Given the plan's size and its profile as a local pension fund for Western New York workers, the public-markets and fixed-income portfolios are presumed to be global, while private-market commitments are likely concentrated in North America. Real estate and infrastructure investments may skew toward domestic core assets, which is typical for Taft-Hartley plans seeking steady cash yields to match their liability profile.
How is the pension plan related to the union's other benefit funds?
The pension plan is one of several trust funds operating under the umbrella of the UA Plumbers & Steamfitters Local 22 Benefit Funds. Separate trusts cover health and welfare benefits and an annuity plan. Each trust is legally distinct with potentially different trustee boards, though there is often significant overlap in personnel. Their assets are segregated by ERISA requirements, and the pension plan is solely dedicated to providing retirement income. The other trusts address active-member needs like health insurance and supplemental retirement savings.
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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