What Asbestos Trust Funds Are

Asbestos diseases can take decades to appear, so companies facing thousands of lawsuits could not simply pay current claims and close. Federal bankruptcy law allowed many of them to reorganize while placing money and stock into a separate trust. In exchange, lawsuits against the reorganized company were stopped and directed to the trust instead. This is why some well-known product makers can no longer be sued directly. Their responsibility did not disappear. It moved into a fund with its own staff, claim forms and payment rules. For families, that means a claim can still be made even if the company that made the insulation or gaskets no longer operates the way it once did.

Each trust is managed by trustees and staff who follow trust distribution procedures approved during the bankruptcy. Those procedures describe which diseases qualify, what proof is needed and how much a claim is worth on paper. Trust staff are not deciding whether you are sympathetic. They check whether your medical records and exposure evidence meet the written criteria. Many trusts share processing through a few claims facilities, so the forms can look similar from one trust to the next. Still, the rules are not identical. One trust may accept a certain job site as proof, while another asks for more detail about the product you worked around.

A trust claim is an application, not a trial. There is no jury, no deposition in most cases and no argument about whether the company was careless, because that question was settled when the trust was created. The focus is narrower: do you have a qualifying diagnosis, and were you exposed to this company's products? Because of that, trust claims are often quicker and less stressful than lawsuits. The tradeoff is that trusts pay according to their own schedules and percentages, so the amount is not negotiated the way a settlement might be. Many families pursue both routes, depending on which companies were involved in their work history.

1. 1

   Write down every employer, job site and military assignment where asbestos products may have been present, with approximate years.

2. 2

   Request a copy of the pathology report that confirms the mesothelioma diagnosis and keep it with your claim papers.

3. 3

   Ask an attorney or claims professional which trusts match the products and sites in your work history.

4. 4

   Keep copies of every trust form you sign and note the date each claim was submitted.