The 2008 Annual Covered Earnings Reports from the American Federation of Musicians and Employers Pension Fund (AFM-EP Fund) are now in the mail. You may have already received yours or you will be receiving it shortly.

It is important to recognize that recording musicians present significant tracking and allocation problems for the Fund, given our myriad number of employers, projects, multiple session and project bundling, re-uses and new-uses which can occur during any given year.

As always, RMA encourages all members to carefully examine and reconcile their employment records with their “pension statement.” Thanks in major part to participants who carefully review their statements; the Pension Fund is made aware of potential issues at the earliest possible time and that benefits all of us.

The public section of the Fund’s website is a great resource for general information and updates. Check it out at www.afm-epf.org.

While you are there, RMA highly recommends that you also take the time to become a registered user. This will allow you to securely access prior statements, interim statements and other private data.

You can also go directly to the following press release which describes those new online features in detail.

We are most grateful that the Trustees of the Fund ─ who actually set Fund policy ─ together with Executive Director Maureen Kilkelly and her staff, continue to create more comprehensive and transparent reports as well as greater online access.

The Pension Fund is hard at work all year long on behalf of participants; gathering and processing contributions, initiating retirement benefits, servicing retirees and countless other tasks. I am sure you all join me in expressing great appreciation to Ms. Kilkelly and her staff for the great work they do.

Sincerely,

Phil Ayling
President RMA International