Will County Local 174 Carpenters Pension Fund

Will County Local 174 Carpenters Pension Fund

The fund operated as a defined-benefit pension plan for union carpenters in Will County, Illinois, under the Taft-Hartley multiemployer structure. Its sponsors were the Contractors Association of Will and Grundy Counties and Carpenters Local 174, a model where multiple employers contribute to a single plan for a mobile workforce. The fund maintained an investment portfolio based in Joliet, though its asset allocation and external manager roster were not publicly disclosed. Before the merger, the fund's investment approach reflected the conservative posture typical of mature multiemployer pension plans. These plans generally allocate across domestic equities, fixed income, and real estate to meet actuarial return assumptions, often with a growing private-markets sleeve. Effective January 1, 2025, the fund merged into the Mid-America Carpenters Regional Council Pension Fund (MACRC), a larger multi-state plan covering carpenters across the Midwest (per the fund's official communications, 2024). The merger rationale explicitly cited reduced aggregate fees, improved administrative efficiencies, and economies of scale in professional services. The MACRC successor entity now administers the combined participant base, diluting the standalone identity of the former Local 174 fund. The structural distinguishing feature of the Local 174 fund was its embeddedness in a local collective bargaining ecosystem. Unlike single-employer corporate pensions, its fate was tied to local union density, construction activity in Will and Grundy Counties, and the health of contributing contractors. The 2025 merger into a regional council fund represents a broader multiemployer trend of consolidation to preserve benefit security as smaller plans face demographic and funding pressures.