Federal Welfare and Pension Plans Disclosure Act;

              The Federal Welfare and
by Gwain H. Gillespie
Detroit
APPROXIMATELY 84,000,000 PERSONS currently rely upon present
or future benefits from various types of pension or welfare plans.
Contributions to these plans amount to roughly $10 billion annually,
and current funds for pension plans alone have been estimated to be
as high as $30 billion, in comparison with about one-third of that
amount ten years ago. Periods of rapid growth and increased impor­tance
of areas of commerce have often been followed by legislation for
control or regulation by Congress. Because of this fact, and also
because reports of abuse or mismanagement through negligence or
willful intent, although certainly isolated and unusual, appear in the
public press, few were surprised when Congress enacted the Federal
Welfare and Pension Plans Disclosure Act effective as of January
1, 1959.
It was not the intention of Congress to regulate pension and welfare
plans but to leave the policing of the operations of the plans to the
participants. Rather, as the title of the Act indicates, the intent of
Congress was to make mandatory the disclosure of information which
20 THE QUARTERLY