| Hello Marcia Banner, How are things going? As you know - there's been a lot of funny business associated with a number of companies "going bankrupt" in recent years. Quite likely your husband's former company has all the bases covered. You might want to check out the trustee that is overseeing their bankruptcy. I don't know where to suggest that you look - but check with the trustee in bankruptcy of your husband's former company, to be sure that their bankruptcy is legitimate, and that the pension plan cannot recover any of the remaining assets. No doubt there are a fairly large number of creditors. They may be checking out to see whether there appears to be some skulduggery involved. What they will be seeking is to recover some/as much as possible of the debt that is owed to them. The agency managing their pension plan may have had money rather improperly removed - in which case they might be able to claim to be one of the creditors. You say that you received a message from the company saying that the pension would be terminated. Which may mean that the whole of the pension fund was managed in-house - so money that was removed to keep the company operational may have been legal, even if most of us would say that it was largely immoral. I wrote in another area that we all should learn major lessons from some of this rash of recent bankruptcies: -if you own stock in your company, best move some of it elsewhere when it becomes free and you can do as you please with it, and -if your pension plan is managed by your company, work with other employees to get the underlying funds moved to a third party - so that if your company goes bankrupt, the pension remains intact. I hope that, as you talk with friends, you'll encourage them to get things in motion to achieve that result in their company. I hope that you're getting things worked out to allow you to keep your head above water. Good wishes to you - and hubby. joyful guy | 
