Professionals

Professionals

The Board of Trustees of the Trust retains the following professional organizations to efficiently facilitate and assist in the Trust management.

Trust Counsel:

Laner Muchin
www.lanermuchin.com

Trust Counsel is William H. Nichols, a Partner at the law firm Laner Muchin which is headquartered in Chicago, IL.  Mr. Nichols has over thirty years of experience in employee benefits law.

Additional Legal Services
Additional legal services and collection of delinquent contributions and withdrawal liabilities are handled by the law firm of Tucker Arensberg, P.C., which is located in Pittsburgh, PA.

Third-Party Administrator (TPA):

Zenith American Solutions, Inc.
www.zenith-american.com

See below for more information

Actuary:

Cheiron
www.cheiron.us

The Actuary’s main obligation is to perform the annual Actuarial Valuation of the Trust with the purpose of measuring and disclosing the current financial condition of the Trust, projecting the likely future financial condition of the Trust and to provide specific documentation and information required by the Federal Government and the Trust auditors.

The Actuarial Valuation establishes and analyzes Trust assets, liabilities, and Employer contributions, as well as measuring the Trust’s investment performance year over year using assumptions supplied by the Trust office and Auditors, such as plan provisions, employee data and actual financial information.

External Auditor:

Kreischer Miller
www.kmco.com

The Auditor examines the annual financial statements of the Trust, which comprise the statement of net assets available for benefit payments and the related statement of changes in net assets, in order to produce an opinion about whether the financial statements are free from material misstatement in accordance with auditing standards generally accepted in the United States of America.

Custodian:

The Northern Trust Company
www.northerntrust.com

The Custodian has physical possession of the Trust assets and is responsible for the safekeeping of the assets. The Custodian will perform actions such as making payments or trading securities, but only at the direction of the Investment Consultants.

Investment Consultant:

Graystone Consulting
www.morganstanley.com

The Investment Consultant offers the highest level of sophisticated financial/investment advice to address the complexities facing the trustees, investment committees and staff, with focus on the Investment Manager performance and diversification.

Investment Managers:

The Investment Managers invest in portfolios on behalf of the Trust, in accordance with the investment objectives and parameters defined by the Trust. The current Investment Managers, by investment style, are as follows:

Contact Us:

  • Equity
    Northern Trust Asset Management
    Chartwell Investment Partners
    Epoch Investment Partners, Inc.
    Fred Alger Management, Inc.
    Frontier Capital Management
    Jackson Square Partners
    LSV Asset Management
    MFS Investment Management Co.
    Peregrine Capital Management, Inc.
    Mellon Capital
    Wedge Capital Management
  • Private Equity
    Hamilton Lane Co
    Landmark Growth Capital Partners
    The Blackstone Group (1)

    Fixed Income
    Loomis Sayles & Company L.P. (1)
    Sierra Investment Partners, Inc.

    Opportunistic Fixed Income
    Loomis Sayles & Company L.P. (2)
    Metropolitan West Asset Management

    International Equity Manager
    Globeflex Capital

  • Real Estate
    ASB Capital Management
    JP Morgan Asset Management
    Angelo Gordon & Co.
    The Blackstone Group (2)

    Hedge Funds
    Grosvenor Institutional Partners L. P.
    Mesirow

    Alternative Assets
    The Blackstone Group (3)

Third-Party Administrator:
Zenith American Solutions, Inc.
www.zenith-american.com

The Trust utilizes a Third-Party Administrator (TPA), to handle the processing of the plan Employer contributions and distribution to employees. The TPA responsibilities include, but may not be limited to, the handling of the following subject matters:

Related to Retiree/Plan Participant                                 

  • Record keeping
  • Issuance of monthly pension payments
  • Address changes
  • Bank account/direct deposit updates and setup
  • Income verification
  • Monthly pension amount verification
  • W-4 P Federal Withholding Election
  • 1099R forms
  • Survivor’s benefits
  • Death benefits
  • Disability benefits
  • Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO)
  • Beneficiary updates and setup
  • Accrued benefit reporting
  • Pension applications
  • Plan mandated reporting to government agencies
  • Mail required notices to Participants and Employers

Related to Employers                             

  • Employer Contributions (Collections, processing, reporting)
  • Address and bank account changes
  • Account review
  • Contribution rate changes
  • Collective Bargaining agreement changes
  • Employer delinquencies
  • Contractual obligations
  • Employee waiting periods
  • Special Request fulfillments