THRONEBERRY LAW GROUP
Mesothelioma & Asbestos Attorneys
TRUST PAYMENT REFERENCE
A payment reference for the Plant Asbestos Settlement Trust (the Plant Insulation Company Asbestos Settlement Trust), which pays claims for exposure to asbestos insulation that Plant Insulation Company installed, sold, or removed, mostly at Northern California refineries, power plants, chemical plants, and industrial sites. Plant calls its payment percentage the Funds Received Ratio and values claims on a Case Valuation Matrix rather than a flat scheduled value. Every figure below was checked against the trust's own TDP, Matrix, Fourteenth Annual Report, notices, and site list on October 18, 2026.
CURRENT TRUST STATUS
The Plant Insulation trust pays 20% of a claim's liquidated value. The trustees raised the Funds Received Ratio from 16.5% to 20% in a notice posted May 7, 2024, after a review on April 11, 2024, and it has not changed since. Plant does not use a scheduled value. A mesothelioma claim starts at a $512,799 base case value, is multiplied by adjustment factors for age, whether the injured person is living, dependents, economic and medical loss, and the exposure rating of the work site, is paid at 20%, and then gets a cost-of-living add-on that for 2026 payments is a cumulative 37.99%. A base case mesothelioma claim with no adjustments comes to about $102,560 at 20%, or about $141,522 with the 2026 inflation add-on. The Matrix caps a claim at four times the $650,000 mesothelioma Average Value unless it is an Extraordinary Claim. In 2025 the trust paid 354 claims, 53 of them mesothelioma. The ratio is low because the trust's funding is tied to what it has collected from Plant's insurers, and it has risen every time the trustees have reviewed it since 2019.
Throneberry Law Group files Plant Insulation claims for refinery, power plant, and chemical plant workers, insulators, pipefitters, and building trades workers from the Bay Area, the Sacramento Valley, and the rest of Northern California, and for their families. This page is part of our asbestos trust funds guide, which covers every trust we file against.
PAYMENT REFERENCE
The table below is the short answer. The sections that follow explain each line.
| Current payment percentage | 20% of the total liquidated claim value. Plant calls it the Funds Received Ratio (TDP Sections 2.3 and 4.2; Fourteenth Annual Report filed April 28, 2026; Claim Report as of December 31, 2025). |
|---|---|
| In effect since | May 7, 2024 (notice date), when the trustees, with the consent of the Trust Advisory Committee and the Futures Representative, raised the ratio from 16.5% to 20% after the April 11, 2024 review. Previously paid claims received the difference. |
| Prior rates | Initial Funds Received Ratio 9% (set March 12, 2015, on the trust's economist's analysis); 8.6% (December 14, 2015, on further information; reaffirmed June 13, 2018); 11.5% (June 4, 2019); 16.5% (April 24, 2023); 20% (May 7, 2024). Every change since 2015 has been an increase, and each was paid retroactively. |
| Review cycle | The trustees must reconsider the Funds Received Ratio at least once every three years, and sooner when material additional funds arrive or the trustees, TAC, or Futures Representative think an adjustment is needed (TDP Section 4.2). The ratio is calculated on the assumption that the Matrix's Average Values will be achieved for present and future claims. |
| Inflation adjustment | Yes, two ways. Every payment carries a CPI-W cost-of-living adjustment: payments made in 2026 include a cumulative 37.99% add-on (34.49% for 2025 payments). The Matrix loss thresholds are indexed each January; for 2026 the Economic Loss base case is $275,975, the Medical Loss base case is $263,286, and the Assumed Future Medical Loss and Funeral Expenses figure is $98,732 (Annual Report paragraph 12; notice posted January 13, 2026). |
| Mesothelioma values | Base case $512,799; Average Value $650,000. Minimum payment is 10% of the Average Value ($65,000); maximum is four times the Average Value ($2,600,000) unless the claim is Extraordinary (Matrix Section I(a)). The Matrix values are Plant's several share, derived from the Western Asbestos Settlement Trust Matrix and adjusted by the CPI-W. |
| Mesothelioma payout at the current rate | A base case claim with a multiplier of 1.0 liquidates at $512,799 and pays about $102,560 at 20%, or about $141,522 once the 2026 inflation add-on of 37.99% is applied. A claim valued at the Average Value ($650,000) pays about $130,000 at 20%, about $179,387 with the add-on. Real claims carry multipliers, so the figures move up or down from there. |
| Review options | Matrix Claim (meets all Matrix medical and exposure criteria; valued by base case times multipliers). Individual Review for a claim that misses a Matrix criterion but would be valid in the tort system, capped at the Average Value unless a panel unanimously relaxes the cap (Matrix Section VIII). Disputes go to arbitration under the trust's ADR Procedures. |
| Extraordinary Claims | Where the injured person was exposed only to Plant, Plant exposure was over 80% of total asbestos exposure, medical expenses are extraordinary, or special damages are exceptionally large, the trust may value the claim above the Maximum Value, up to eight times the Average Value ($5,200,000 for mesothelioma before the ratio). Disputes go to a special Extraordinary Claims panel (Matrix Section IX). |
| Exposure requirement | Credible, reliable evidence of exposure to asbestos-containing material for which Plant is responsible at a site where Plant is shown to have been present. Mesothelioma requires at least three months of exposure at such sites, or Plant exposure equal to at least 10% of total asbestos exposure; one to three months earns a reduced value. Every other disease requires at least one year or 25% (Matrix Section VII(c)). Each site carries an exposure rating that multiplies the value: Very High 3.0, High 1.5, Standard 1.0, Low 0.5, Very Low 0.25, and some sites carry different ratings for different years. Shipboard exposure requires proof that Plant products were installed on that ship and that the worker was in an area where they were present. Secondary (household) exposure is allowed when the worker would have qualified. |
| Filing deadline | The statute of limitations is the one that applies in the tort system where a claim against Plant was pending on the Petition Date (so long as Plant was subject to personal jurisdiction there), or where it could have been timely and properly filed (TDP Section 5.3). Claims that arose before the May 20, 2009 Petition Date and were not already barred were tolled through February 23, 2016. Claims for people who died before the Petition Date, or between the Petition Date and September 30, 2017 and not then in California litigation, had to be filed by September 30, 2018 (Section 5.4(a)(2)). For a new diagnosis, the controlling state's limitations period (California's, for most Plant claimants) sets the deadline, so the claim should be filed as soon as the diagnosis is confirmed. |
| Fees and withdrawal rules | $250 filing fee per claim, refunded if the claim is allowed and paid (TDP Section 6.4; reviewed November 7, 2025 with no change). A claim left on Hold/Deferred, Reviewed Deficient, or Offer Made status for six months (plus one six-month extension for good cause) is deemed withdrawn. Withdrawal does not affect the statute of limitations but costs the claim its place in the FIFO queue, and a resubmitted claim needs a new fee (trust policy page). The fee is refunded if a site is removed from the list after the claim is filed. |
| Claims processor | The trust is administered from Reno with the Western Asbestos, Thorpe Insulation, and J.T. Thorpe trusts: Plant Asbestos Settlement Trust, 560 Hammill Lane, Reno, Nevada 89511, (775) 324-5511, support@524gtrust.com. Online filing through the trust's claims system. Payments by ACH only since January 1, 2021. Trustees: John F. Luikart (Managing Trustee) and Sandra R. Hernández, M.D.; Futures Representative Hon. David F. Levi; TAC chair Alan R. Brayton. |
| Trust created | Under the Amended and Restated Second Amended Plan of Reorganization of Plant Insulation Company filed April 2, 2012 and confirmed April 3, 2012, as modified November 20, 2013, in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California, San Francisco Division (Case No. 09-31347-HLB). Petition Date May 20, 2009; the trust's Modified Effective Date was September 15, 2014, and the trust set its initial ratio and began paying in 2015. Current governing documents: Twelfth Amended and Completely Restated Trust Agreement; Sixth Amended and Completely Restated TDP; Fourth Amended and Completely Restated Case Valuation Matrix (for claims submitted on or after June 1, 2026). |
| Last checked | October 18, 2026, against pastrust.com (home, About the Trust, Trust Documents, Claims Packet, Policies, Trust Representatives, and Contact pages and the 2013 through 2025 notice archives), the Fourteenth Annual Report and Accounting filed April 28, 2026 (including the Sixth Amended TDP, the Third Amended Matrix, and the Claim Report as of December 31, 2025), the Modification to Case Valuation Matrix posted May 28, 2026, and the Plant Site List (April 2026). |
SCHEDULE OF DISEASES
Plant compensates five diseases: mesothelioma, lung cancer, other cancer, and two grades of non-malignant disease. The base case value is the starting point for the multipliers. The Average Value is Plant's several share of historical tort values; it sets the floor (10%), the Individual Review cap (1x), the Maximum Value (4x), and the Extraordinary Claim ceiling (8x). Payments are then multiplied by 20% and increased by the year's inflation add-on.
| Disease | Base Case Value | Average Value | Base Case Payout at 20% | With 2026 Inflation Add-On (37.99%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mesothelioma | $512,799 | $650,000 | About $102,560 | About $141,522 |
| Lung Cancer | $108,191 | $250,000 | About $21,638 | About $29,859 |
| Other Cancer | $32,731 | $95,000 | About $6,546 | About $9,033 |
| Grade I Non-Malignancy | $41,825 | $65,000 | About $8,365 | About $11,543 |
| Grade II Non-Malignancy | $24,957 | $27,000 | About $4,991 | About $6,888 |
The payout columns are the base case value times 20%, then times 1.3799 for the 2026 add-on, rounded, for a claim with a 1.0 multiplier. Base case mesothelioma means a deceased 75-year-old with a spouse, no other dependents, economic loss and medical expenses under the indexed thresholds, Standard exposure in a traditional trade, and ten years of latency. Multipliers move from there: age (adjusted up for claimants under 75 and down for those over 75), 1.3 if living when the lawsuit or claim was filed, 0.8 with no spouse or minor children and an upward adjustment for dependent children, documented economic or medical loss above the thresholds, and the site exposure rating from 0.25 (Very Low) to 3.0 (Very High) (Matrix Section II). Since June 1, 2026, Serious Asbestosis (ILO 2/2 with AMA Class IV impairment, or qualifying oxygen dependence) and asbestosis death are valued on the lung cancer scale.
FILING REQUIREMENTS
Plant is a litigation-style trust run by the Western Asbestos office in Reno. It wants the claim form, the trust's abbreviated California interrogatories, an in personam jurisdiction declaration, medical records, and the economic and medical loss documentation a tort case would carry, and it rates the exposure site rather than treating exposure as a yes-or-no question.
The claimant must show, by credible and reliable evidence, exposure to asbestos-containing material for which Plant is responsible (Matrix Sections I(d) and VII). The trust's Site List (April 2026) is short, 273 entries covering 266 California sites, six in Nevada, and one in Wyoming, each with a rating: 8 Very High (the Plant Asbestos Co. shops in San Francisco and Emeryville; the Tosco, Phillips, and Tidewater refinery entries at Avon; Union Oil at Rodeo; Union Carbide at Elk Grove; and Aerojet-General at Nimbus for its later years), 15 High (including Shell Oil and Stauffer Chemical in Martinez, Standard Oil in Richmond, the Exxon refinery in Benicia, Sequoia Oil in Hercules, Monsanto at Avon, PG&E at Pittsburg and the Potrero plant in San Francisco, US Steel in Pittsburg, Fibreboard in Antioch, PABCO in Emeryville, IBM in San Jose, Campbell Soup in Sacramento, and the Klamath Air Force radar station), 62 Standard, 98 Low, and 90 Very Low. Some entries carry one rating for one period and another rating later, so the dates in the work history matter. The trust posts no ship list, but the Matrix accepts shipboard exposure with proof that Plant products were installed on the ship and that the worker was in an area where they were present. Mesothelioma needs three months at sites where Plant was present or 10% of total exposure (one to three months gets a reduced value); all other diseases need one year or 25% (Section VII(c)). When several sites are needed to reach the minimum, the trust blends the ratings by time (trust Blending Exposures policy). Household exposure claims must show the worker would have qualified. Declarations must come from someone with direct knowledge and explain the basis for every fact.
Diagnoses must be made by board-certified physicians in the right specialty to a reasonable medical probability; reports that say findings are only "consistent with" asbestos disease are not enough on their own (Matrix Section I(b)). Mesothelioma needs a diagnosis by a pathologist, internist, pulmonologist, or occupational medicine physician and ten years of latency. Lung cancer and other cancer have their own criteria. Non-malignant claims are divided into Grade I and Grade II by imaging and pulmonary function results, with Enhanced and Serious Asbestosis tiers above them, and the trust posts a checklist for each disease. The National Cancer Institute explains what mesothelioma is and how it is diagnosed.
The deadline is the statute of limitations of the state where a Plant claim was pending or could have been filed, which for most claimants is California's (TDP Section 5.3). Claims that arose before May 20, 2009 and were not already barred were tolled through February 23, 2016, and the trust's special deadlines for claims of people who died before September 30, 2017 passed on September 30, 2018. For a diagnosis today, the state limitations period runs from the diagnosis, so the trust claim and any companion lawsuit should move together. Every claim needs a $250 filing fee, refunded when the claim is allowed and paid. Claims are processed first-in, first-out and paid in the order their values became final, subject to the ratio and the Maximum Annual Payment (TDP Section 5.4). A claim parked in Hold/Deferred, Reviewed Deficient, or Offer Made status for six months is deemed withdrawn after any extension expires. Withdrawal does not change the statute of limitations, but the claim goes to the back of the line and needs a new fee. Payments are by ACH only.
A claim that meets every Matrix criterion is valued at the base case times the multipliers, floored at 10% of the Average Value and capped at four times the Average Value. A claim that misses a criterion but would be valid in the tort system can get Individual Review, capped at the Average Value unless a panel unanimously relaxes the cap (Section VIII). An Extraordinary Claim (Plant-only or over 80% Plant exposure, extraordinary medical expenses, or exceptionally large special damages) can exceed the Maximum Value up to eight times the Average Value (Section IX). Disputes go to arbitration under the trust's ADR Procedures. Every result is then paid at 20% plus the year's inflation add-on, subject to the Maximum Annual Payment ($10,472,086 for 2026).
RATE HISTORY
Plant's TDP ties the payment rate to the money the trust has actually collected, which is why it is called the Funds Received Ratio, and the trust was funded with cash, a note receivable, and insurance settlement proceeds. The trust's Modified Effective Date was September 15, 2014. On March 12, 2015 the trustees set the Initial Funds Received Ratio at 9% on their economist's analysis, with TAC and Futures Representative consent, and on December 14, 2015, on further information, reset it to 8.6%. A review in April and May 2018 left it at 8.6%.
Since then the trustees have raised the ratio three times, each with TAC and Futures Representative consent and each paid retroactively: to 11.5% (June 4, 2019), to 16.5% (April 24, 2023), and to 20% (reviewed April 11, 2024; notice posted May 7, 2024). The trust also sets a Maximum Annual Payment each year under TDP Section 2.4; for 2026 it is $10,472,086, set at the November 7, 2025 trustees' meeting. The Claim Report as of December 31, 2025 shows 549 claims received, 552 offers issued, and 354 claims paid in 2025 (53 mesothelioma, 54 lung cancer, 12 other cancer, 33 serious asbestosis, 111 Grade I and Enhanced, 91 Grade II), and total payments since inception of $191,680,841 across trust-processed, pre-petition, and increase payments.
PRODUCTS AND WORK SITES
The trust answers for asbestos-containing material for which Plant Insulation Company is responsible, a Northern California insulation contractor whose own shops in San Francisco and Emeryville (listed as Plant Asbestos Co.) carry the trust's Very High rating. Its list is built around job sites rather than a product name, and it is a Bay Area and Sacramento Valley list: 266 of its 273 entries are in California, with a handful in Nevada and one in Wyoming.
The heaviest-rated sites are the Contra Costa refinery row (the Tosco, Phillips, and Tidewater entries at Avon, Union Oil at Rodeo, Shell Oil and Stauffer Chemical in Martinez, the Exxon refinery in Benicia, Sequoia Oil in Hercules, Standard Oil in Richmond, and Monsanto at Avon), the PG&E plants at Pittsburg and Potrero, US Steel in Pittsburg, Fibreboard in Antioch, PABCO in Emeryville, Union Carbide in Elk Grove, and Aerojet-General at Nimbus. Standard-rated entries run from Dow Chemical and Columbia Steel in Pittsburg, Crown Zellerbach in Antioch, and the C&H sugar refinery in Crockett to Hercules Powder, Chevron Chemical in Richmond, the General Motors plant in Fremont, and office towers and university buildings in San Francisco, Sacramento, and Hayward; the Lawrence Livermore laboratory is rated Low.
The same Northern California history usually supports claims against the Western Asbestos trust, which pays 51.1% on a larger site list, and against Johns Manville and the other insulation trusts, which is where most of the recovery comes from. We handle cases for San Francisco, Sacramento, and California clients.
QUESTIONS
As of October 18, 2026, the Plant Asbestos Settlement Trust pays 20% of a claim's liquidated value. The trust calls this its Funds Received Ratio. It rose from 16.5% to 20% in May 2024 after an April 11, 2024 review, and it has gone up at every change since 2019. Payments made in 2026 also carry a cumulative cost-of-living add-on of 37.99%.
There is no single figure, because Plant values claims on a Matrix. A mesothelioma case starts at a $512,799 base case value and is adjusted for age, living status, dependents, economic and medical loss, and the exposure rating of the site. A base case claim with no adjustments pays about $102,560 at 20%, about $141,522 with the 2026 inflation add-on. Claims can run up to four times the $650,000 Average Value, or eight times for an Extraordinary Claim.
The trust is still accepting and paying claims, and it paid 354 of them in 2025. The deadline is the statute of limitations of the state where the claim could have been filed, which for most Plant claimants is California's, so a new diagnosis should be acted on quickly. The trust's special 2018 deadlines for older death claims have passed. Every claim needs a $250 filing fee, refunded when the claim is paid.
WHY THRONEBERRY LAW GROUP
Plant pays a fifth of a large number, and the number is where the work is. A living claimant at a Very High site carries a 1.3 x 3.0 multiplier before age and loss adjustments, which turns a $512,799 base case into a seven-figure liquidated value and a six-figure payment even at 20%, while the same claim at a Very Low site is worth a twelfth of that. We match the work history and dates against the 273-entry site list, document the loss figures above the indexed thresholds, build declarations with the foundation the trust demands, and file while the claimant is living when we can. We also track the ratio, because every review since 2019 has raised it and the trust pays the difference to claimants already paid. Our overview of mesothelioma compensation explains how trust payments fit with lawsuits and other recoveries, and attorney Michael Throneberry, who has handled asbestos cases for more than two decades, reviews every trust claim before it goes out.
We work on contingency, so you pay nothing unless we recover money for you. We serve clients nationwide, we can help Spanish-speaking families, and we travel to you, including to your home or hospital.
SOURCES
Figures on this page come from the Plant Asbestos Settlement Trust website (pastrust.com): the home, About the Trust, Trust Documents, Claims Packet, Policies, Trust Representatives, and Contact pages and the 2013 through 2025 notice archives; the Fourteenth Annual Report and Accounting, Audited Financial Statements, and Claim Report filed April 28, 2026 in Case No. 09-31347-HLB (Bankr. N.D. Cal.), including the Sixth Amended and Completely Restated TDP, the Third Amended and Completely Restated Case Valuation Matrix, and the Claim Report as of December 31, 2025; the Modification to Case Valuation Matrix posted May 28, 2026; and the Plant Site List (April 2026). Last checked October 18, 2026.
DISCLAIMER
This page is general information, not legal advice. Trust payment ratios, Matrix values, and procedures change, and the trust's own current documents control. Payout examples are arithmetic on the trust's published figures, not a promise of any result. Contacting us or sending a form does not create an attorney-client relationship.
Copyright 2026 Throneberry Law Group. All rights reserved.
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If you or a family member worked at a Contra Costa or Solano County refinery, a PG&E plant, a Pittsburg or Antioch mill, or another listed Northern California site, the Plant Insulation trust may owe a payment, and the same history almost always supports a larger claim against Western Asbestos and the other insulation trusts. We check the current ratio, the site rating and dates, the Matrix multipliers, and the fee and status deadlines for every trust before we file.
We serve clients across the country, we can help Spanish-speaking families, and we charge nothing unless we recover for you. Start with a free, no-obligation case review through our contact form.
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