Federal Court Appoints Fiduciary for Abandoned WA Aerospace 401(k)
A defunct Arlington, WA aerospace firm left 59 workers unable to access retirement savings. A court order now appoints an independent manager to release funds.
The U.S. Department of Labor has won a federal court order appointing an independent fiduciary to oversee the abandoned 401(k) plan of Commercial Aircraft Interiors LLC, an Arlington, Washington-based aerospace company that ceased operations in 2023, leaving dozens of former employees locked out of their retirement savings.
The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington designated AMI Benefit Plan Administrators Inc. to manage the frozen plan. The appointment gives the firm authority to distribute assets to eligible former employees and formally wind down the plan — two actions that were previously blocked because the only available company representative, Charles Pratt, did not hold the legal authority to approve such steps.
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The plan holds approximately $260,000 in assets spread across 59 participants. Federal law under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act requires all employee benefit plans to operate under named fiduciaries; without one, workers cannot obtain account information or claim the benefits owed to them.
"The appointment of an independent fiduciary will give the participants in the Commercial Aircraft Interiors plan access to the funds that rightly belong to them," said Liam Roberts, district director for the Labor Department's Employee Benefits Security Administration in Seattle. The agency oversees benefit plans covering more than 155 million workers and retirees nationwide, with combined assets of roughly $15.2 trillion.
The Labor Department urged workers whose retirement plans have been abandoned to contact EBSA at askebsa.dol.gov or call 866-444-3272 for assistance. Continue reading at DOL News Releases and Briefs.
