State of the Asbestos Trust System
Quarterly flagship reports covering aggregate movement, payment-percentage direction analysis, depletion trends, system events, and a data-quality ledger. Each report carries a stable identifier (ATR-YYYY-QN) for citation. Published on the 1st of January, April, July, and October.
State of the Asbestos Trust System — Q3 2026
The filing season closes with the documented floor confirmed at $17.04B and 23.3% on verified class-(a) footing. Maremont and API are now fully verified at FY2025, correcting a prior $933,980 under-verification. Seven cuts since January 2023, zero raises. Babcock & Wilcox completes the seven-week notice-to-cut template. No new formations or closures.
Key Findings
- Documented floor confirmed at exact $17,042,880,106 — Maremont ($49.59M) and API ($7.73M) now fully verified at FY2025, correcting prior $933,980 under-verification
- Seven documented cuts since January 2023, zero raises; B&W completes seven-week notice-to-cut template (4.7%→4.3%, June 30)
- Three pending reconsiderations: Maremont (Apr 7, decision expected), USG (May, cut possible 12–24 months), B&W (ratification pending TAC/FCR consent)
- No new formations or closures in Q3; Rapid-American remains most recent closure at 14 months (June 6, 2025)
- DCPF governance consolidation continues: Cross-Trust Audit Program and TDP §5.5 amendments in effect across 10 trusts (~$8.7B, ~51% of documented floor)
- Filing season closes with 23.3% of floor on verified class-(a) footing — highest documented share in the series
- Six FY2025 reports still PACER-only (WRG, MLC, Armstrong, Flintkote, PCC, Celotex); largest remaining floor-quality upgrade available
- Georgia-Pacific, DBMP/CertainTeed, and Trane remain in formation pipeline; no funded trusts this quarter
State of the Asbestos Trust System — Q2 2026
Filing-season issue: nine trusts move onto FY2025 filed footing, refreshing the documented floor to an exact $17,042,880,106 (23.3% class-(a)); cuts at Combustion Engineering and Babcock & Wilcox, reconsideration notices at Maremont, USG, and B&W; Georgia-Pacific abandons Bestwall and plans a new Chapter 11. Retrospective issue, backfilled July 28, 2026.
Key Findings
- Documented floor refreshed to an exact $17,042,880,106 — nine trusts (23.3%) now rest on filed FY2025/Q1 2026 documents
- Two cuts: Combustion Engineering to 15.3% (April) and Babcock & Wilcox 4.7%→4.3% (June 30, 'until further notice')
- Three reconsideration notices: Maremont (Apr 7), USG (May), B&W (May 7) — B&W's seven-week notice-to-cut is the documented template
- Owens Corning Subfund cut in June; magnitude not yet documented — flagged, not estimated
- Georgia-Pacific abandons Bestwall after eight years, plans a new Chapter 11; ~$1B+ trust expected but uncounted until funded
- FY2025 season splits free vs. PACER-only: WRG, MLC, Armstrong, Flintkote, PCC, and Celotex exhibits sit behind PACER
- DII's $121.1M 2025 claims expense and Manville's $5.33B cumulative payouts newly documented from filed reports
State of the Asbestos Trust System — Q1 2026
NARCO resumes under DCPF administration, the Fourth Circuit's Herlihy decision channels ~60,000 stayed DBMP suits toward a future trust, the Bestwall fight reaches the Supreme Court docket, and the Cross-Trust Audit Program runs its first cycles — a quiet quarter for payment percentages. Retrospective issue, backfilled July 28, 2026.
Key Findings
- No documented cuts or raises — a pause in the post-2023 cadence; trailing record: six cuts, zero raises in the tracked set
- NARCO resumes intake January 12 under DCPF, completing the migration paused December 31; DCPF now administers ~51% of the documented floor
- Herlihy v. DBMP (Feb 11): Fourth Circuit affirms denial of stay relief; ~60,000 stayed suits channel toward an eventual §524(g) trust
- Bestwall fight moves to the Supreme Court docket — cert petition No. 25-1013 filed in February
- Cross-Trust Audit Program runs its first monthly cycles; TDP §5.5 completes its first full quarter in effect
- Floor composition unchanged at ≈$17.0B — the April filing season is the next data event
State of the Asbestos Trust System — 2025 Year in Review
The 2025 year in review: four payment-percentage cuts and the Celotex deferral, Rapid-American's end-of-life, landmark Fourth Circuit rulings in Kaiser Gypsum and Bestwall, and DCPF's §5.5 amendments and Cross-Trust Audit Program consolidating governance across half the documented floor. Retrospective issue, backfilled July 28, 2026.
Key Findings
- Documented floor ≈$17.0B; composition static all year — 32 secondary-carried trusts at exactly $13,076,231,337, nine public filers at FY2024 values
- Four documented cuts in 2025: Kaiser (Feb), W.R. Grace (Apr), Quigley (Oct), Motors Liquidation (Dec); Celotex enters a Deferral Period at 7%
- Zero raises in the tracked set; Shook & Fletcher's 50→58% raise (May) documents movement outside it
- Rapid-American closes June 6, depleted — final payouts ~18–21%, the system's newest end-of-life data point
- Fourth Circuit landmarks: Kaiser Gypsum confirmation affirmed (Apr 29); Bestwall jurisdiction upheld (Aug 1), en banc denied 8–6 (Oct 30)
- Governance consolidation: TDP §5.5 amendments (Nov 14) and the Cross-Trust Audit Program (Dec 10–11) propagate across DCPF's ~$8.7B, ~51% of the floor
- NARCO pauses intake December 31 ahead of DCPF administration — the year ends mid-transition
What Each Report Covers
Aggregate movement
Documented floor vs. prior quarter, range update
Payment-% direction
Which trusts cut, held, or raised their rates
Depletion trends
Projected depletion dates for top-10 trusts
System events
New filings, closures, court orders, amendments
Data-quality ledger
Count of (a)/(b)/(c) records, upgrades this quarter
Watch list
Trusts with pending decisions in the next 90 days
Reports are committed to the public GitHub repository with a stable identifier and indexed in reports/index.json for programmatic access.