114
HARRIS TRUST AND SAV. BANK Thomas, J., dissenting
fits" under the statute are payments to plan participants, not any payments to the pension plan itself. See Mack Boring, supra, at 273 ("[T]he term 'benefit,' when used in ERISA, uniformly refers only to payments due to the plan participants or beneficiaries"). The Court recognizes that the term "benefits" does not include payments to the plan but concludes that the reference to "the amount of" benefits means the aggregate amount of benefits. Ante, at 106. The Court cites neither authority nor reason for its interpretation, and with good cause. Given that "benefits" refers to payments to individuals, "amount" standing alone most naturally refers to the amount owed to each individual. If, on the other hand, "amount" means aggregate amount, benefits to individuals could vary so long as the insurance company guaranteed that a fixed total amount would be paid. That is hardly consistent with ERISA's focus on protecting plan participants and their beneficiaries. See ante, at 96, and n. 5; 29 U. S. C. § 1001(c).
The Court's focus on the aggregate amount of benefits,
combined with its understanding of "provides for" as requiring a current guarantee, shifts the inquiry from the nature of the benefits that the policy will provide to individuals to the nature of the return that the policy provides to the plan as a whole. In the Court's view, this is precisely the inquiry demanded by the statute. As it makes clear by its citation to Peoria Union Stock Yards Co. Retirement Plan v. Penn Mutual Life Ins. Co., 698 F. 2d 320 (CA7 1983), from which it takes its "lead," ante, at 101, the Court sees the guaranteed benefit policy exception as requiring a guaranteed return on all moneys paid to the insurer—that is, the guaranteed benefit policy exception is really an exception for "insurance contract[s] with a fixed payout." Peoria Union, supra, at 327.3 In reaching this result, the Court is driven
3 To be sure, the payouts must be in the form of guaranteed benefits to plan participants, but the Court's focus remains on an overall fixed return. Thus, in its view, any funds not immediately committed to the payment of
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