THRONEBERRY LAW GROUP
Mesothelioma & Asbestos Attorneys
TRUST PAYMENT REFERENCE
A payment reference for the Thorpe Insulation Settlement Trust, which pays claims for exposure to asbestos insulation that Thorpe Insulation Company and Pacific Insulation Company distributed, installed, or removed, mostly in Southern California. Thorpe 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, Sixteenth Annual Report, notices, and site and ship lists on October 18, 2026.
CURRENT TRUST STATUS
The Thorpe Insulation trust pays 58.6% of a claim's liquidated value. The trustees raised the Funds Received Ratio from 51.8% to 58.6% on April 24, 2023 and left it there after reviews on April 11, 2024 and in February 2025. Thorpe does not use a scheduled value. A mesothelioma claim starts at a $315,463 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 58.6%, and then gets a cost-of-living add-on that for 2026 payments is a cumulative 49.94%. A base case mesothelioma claim with no adjustments comes to about $184,861 at 58.6%, or about $277,181 with the 2026 inflation add-on. The Matrix caps a claim at four times the $597,913 mesothelioma Average Value unless it is an Extraordinary Claim. In 2025 the trust paid 237 claims, 91 of them mesothelioma.
Throneberry Law Group files Thorpe Insulation claims for refinery, power plant, and shipyard workers, insulators, pipefitters, and building trades workers from Los Angeles, Long Beach, Orange County, and the rest of Southern 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 | 58.6% of the total liquidated claim value. Thorpe calls it the Funds Received Ratio (TDP Sections 2.3 and 4.2; Sixteenth Annual Report filed April 28, 2026; Claim Report as of December 31, 2025). |
|---|---|
| In effect since | April 24, 2023, when the trustees, with the consent of the Trust Advisory Committee and the Futures Representative, raised the ratio from 51.8% to 58.6%. Previously paid claims received the difference by the end of July 2023. The trustees reviewed the ratio on April 11, 2024 and again in February 2025 and left it at 58.6% both times. |
| Prior rates | 30.5% (increase posted September 30, 2013; the trust's archive does not post the ratio that preceded it); 43.6% (March 4, 2016); 51.8% (June 13, 2018); 58.6% (April 24, 2023). Every posted change has been an increase, and each one was paid retroactively to earlier claimants. |
| 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 (TDP Section 5.3(d)): payments made in 2026 include a cumulative 49.94% add-on (46.14% for 2025 payments). The Matrix loss thresholds are indexed each January; for 2026 the Economic Loss base case is $299,887, the Medical Loss base case is $298,049, and the Assumed Future Medical Loss and Funeral Expenses figure is $111,769 (Annual Report paragraph 12; notice posted January 13, 2026). |
| Mesothelioma values | Base case $315,463; Average Value $597,913. Minimum payment is 10% of the Average Value ($59,791); maximum is four times the Average Value ($2,391,652) unless the claim is Extraordinary (Matrix Section I(a)). The Matrix values are Thorpe'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 $315,463 and pays about $184,861 at 58.6%, or about $277,181 once the 2026 inflation add-on of 49.94% is applied. A claim valued at the Average Value ($597,913) pays about $350,377 at 58.6%, about $525,355 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 over rejection, medical condition, or exposure go to arbitration under the trust's ADR Procedures (TDP Section 5.9). |
| Extraordinary Claims | Where the injured person was exposed only to Thorpe, Thorpe 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 ($4,783,304 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 Thorpe is responsible at an approved site or on an approved ship. Mesothelioma requires at least three months of exposure at approved Thorpe sites, or Thorpe 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 many Thorpe sites carry a Standard rating for the building years and a Very Low rating afterward. Shipboard exposure requires proof that Thorpe 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 Thorpe was pending on the Petition Date, or where it could have been timely and properly filed (TDP Section 5.2). Claims not already barred on October 15, 2007 (the Petition Date) were tolled through April 20, 2012 without any action by the claimant (Section 5.3(a)(2)). For a new diagnosis, the controlling state's limitations period (California's, for most Thorpe 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 unliquidated claim, refunded if the claim is allowed; the trust may waive it for undue hardship (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; an Incomplete claim with no fee is withdrawn after two weeks, with a fee after one year. 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 $250 fee (TDP Section 6.3; trust policy page). |
| Claims processor | The trust processes its own claims from Reno, sharing offices with the Western Asbestos, J.T. Thorpe, and Plant Insulation trusts: Thorpe Insulation 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 plan of reorganization for Thorpe Insulation Company and Pacific Insulation Company in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California, Los Angeles Division (Case No. 2:07-bk-20016-BB, jointly administered with Case No. 2:07-bk-19271-BB). Petition Date October 15, 2007; the trust became effective October 22, 2010; after an appeal and remand the 2013 Confirmation Order was entered May 8, 2013 and the Confirmation Remand Effective Date was July 9, 2013. The trust is organized in Nevada. Current governing documents: Fifteenth Amendment to and Complete Restatement of Trust Agreement; Seventh Amendment to and Complete Restatement of TDP; Fifth Amendment to and Complete Restatement of Case Valuation Matrix (for claims submitted on or after June 1, 2026). |
| Last checked | October 18, 2026, against tistrust.com (home, About the Trust, Trust Documents, Claims Packet, Policies, Trust Representatives, and Contact pages and the 2010 through 2025 notice archives), the Sixteenth Annual Report and Accounting filed April 28, 2026 (including the Seventh Amended TDP, the Fourth Amended Matrix, and the Claim Report as of December 31, 2025), the Modification to Case Valuation Matrix posted May 28, 2026, the TIST Site List (September 2020), and the TIST Ships Repaired List (March 2015). |
SCHEDULE OF DISEASES
Thorpe 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 Thorpe'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 58.6% and increased by the year's inflation add-on.
| Disease | Base Case Value | Average Value | Base Case Payout at 58.6% | With 2026 Inflation Add-On (49.94%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mesothelioma | $315,463 | $597,913 | About $184,861 | About $277,181 |
| Lung Cancer | $70,794 | $227,281 | About $41,485 | About $62,203 |
| Other Cancer | $25,442 | $85,575 | About $14,909 | About $22,355 |
| Grade I Non-Malignancy | $36,661 | $58,827 | About $21,483 | About $32,212 |
| Grade II Non-Malignancy | $21,193 | $24,892 | About $12,419 | About $18,621 |
The payout columns are the base case value times 58.6%, then times 1.4994 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, dependents, 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
Thorpe is a litigation-style trust run by the same Reno office as Western Asbestos. It wants the claim form, trust-approved California interrogatories, a litigation 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 Thorpe is responsible (Matrix Sections I(d) and VII). The trust's Site List (September 2020) has 656 entries, each with a rating: 19 Very High (Thorpe's own shops in Los Angeles, Commerce, Fullerton, and San Bernardino; the LADWP Haynes, Scattergood, Valley, and San Fernando power plants; Bethlehem Steel and California Shipbuilding at Terminal Island; Union Oil Wilmington; and the Gateway buildings in Century City), about 25 High (including Kaiser Steel Fontana, Shell Oil Carson and Dominguez, the Southern California Edison Etiwanda and Mohave plants, Nevada Power's Reid Gardner station, US Borax, and several Los Angeles hospitals), roughly 260 Standard (about 100 of them Standard only for the years the building went up and Very Low afterward), about 70 Low, and about 280 Very Low. The Ships Repaired List (March 2015) has 3,096 repair availabilities covering 722 ships, all at Long Beach Naval Shipyard. Mesothelioma needs three months at approved Thorpe sites 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). For a ship, the trust requires proof that Thorpe products were actually installed on that ship and that the worker was in an area where they were present; being aboard during a repair at Long Beach counts, but later service on a ship that was once repaired there does not. Household exposure claims must show the worker would have qualified and that the family member's exposure fell in the same period. 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. Asbestosis diagnoses require a pathologist who reviewed the tissue or a physician who examined the patient, with a record-review exception for good cause that caps the claim at the Individual Review limit. 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 Thorpe claim was pending or could have been filed, which for most claimants is California's (TDP Section 5.2). Claims that were not already time-barred on October 15, 2007 were tolled through April 20, 2012. 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 the trust can waive it for hardship. Claims are processed first-in, first-out, with Hardship Claims moved ahead (TDP Sections 5.3 and 5.5). A claim parked in Hold/Deferred, Reviewed Deficient, or Offer Made status for six months is deemed withdrawn after any extension expires; an Incomplete claim without a fee is withdrawn after two weeks. 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 (Thorpe-only or over 80% Thorpe 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 (TDP Section 5.9). Every result is then paid at 58.6% plus the year's inflation add-on, subject to the trust's Maximum Annual Payment ($24,440,761 for 2026).
RATE HISTORY
Thorpe's TDP ties the payment rate to the money the trust has actually collected, which is why it is called the Funds Received Ratio: the initial ratio was to be set once the trust had collected enough to make a distribution worthwhile, and it is revised when material additional funds arrive from the debtors' insurers (TDP Sections 2.3 and 4.2). The trust became effective October 22, 2010, and its confirmation was affirmed on remand in 2013.
The trust's archive shows four posted changes, each an increase with the consent of the TAC and the Futures Representative and each paid retroactively: to 30.5% (posted September 30, 2013; the preceding ratio is not posted), to 43.6% (March 4, 2016), to 51.8% (June 13, 2018), and to 58.6% (April 24, 2023). Reviews on April 11, 2024 and in February 2025 left the ratio at 58.6%. The trust also sets a Maximum Annual Payment each year under TDP Section 2.4; for 2026 it is $24,440,761, set at the November 7, 2025 trustees' meeting. The Claim Report as of December 31, 2025 shows 356 claims received, 280 offers issued, and 237 claims paid in 2025 (91 mesothelioma, 35 lung cancer, 5 other cancer, 6 serious asbestosis, 75 Grade I and Enhanced, 25 Grade II), and total payments since inception of $433,982,311 across trust-processed, pre-petition, and increase payments.
PRODUCTS AND WORK SITES
Thorpe Insulation Company distributed asbestos-containing thermal insulation and worked as a contractor installing and removing it at Southern California oil refineries, power plants, and other major industrial sites, as well as commercial buildings, schools, hospitals, and some shipyards (trust About page). Pacific Insulation Company is the other debtor whose claims the trust pays. The trust answers for the materials they sold, installed, or removed, so its lists are built around job sites and ships rather than a product name. The trust itself warns that it is not the J.T. Thorpe Settlement Trust (a Reno refractory trust for a separate Southern California company), the J.T. Thorpe Company Successor Trust in Texas, or J.T. Thorpe & Son of Northern California; those are different companies with no relationship to Thorpe Insulation.
The heaviest-rated sites are Thorpe's own shops and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power steam plants (Haynes in Long Beach and Seal Beach, Scattergood in El Segundo, Valley in Sun Valley, and San Fernando), the Terminal Island shipyards (Bethlehem Steel and California Shipbuilding), and Union Oil's Wilmington refinery. High-rated sites include Kaiser Steel in Fontana, Shell Oil in Carson and Dominguez, Southern California Edison's Etiwanda and Mohave plants, Nevada Power's Reid Gardner station, US Borax in Boron, Stauffer Chemical in Wilmington, the Anheuser-Busch and Schlitz breweries in Van Nuys, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and hospitals in Glendale, Inglewood, Burbank, and Van Nuys. The ship list covers 722 Navy ships repaired at Long Beach Naval Shipyard.
The same Southern California history usually supports claims against Johns Manville and the other insulation trusts, and often against the Western Asbestos trust when the work history reaches Northern California. We handle cases for Los Angeles and California clients, and our Los Angeles exposure sites page covers the region's plants and shipyards.
QUESTIONS
As of October 18, 2026, the Thorpe Insulation Settlement Trust pays 58.6% of a claim's liquidated value. The trust calls this its Funds Received Ratio. It rose from 51.8% to 58.6% on April 24, 2023, and the trustees reaffirmed it on April 11, 2024 and in February 2025. Payments made in 2026 also carry a cumulative cost-of-living add-on of 49.94%.
There is no single figure, because Thorpe values claims on a Matrix. A mesothelioma case starts at a $315,463 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 $184,861 at 58.6%, about $277,181 with the 2026 inflation add-on. Claims can run up to four times the $597,913 Average Value, or eight times for an Extraordinary Claim.
The trust is still accepting and paying claims, and it paid 237 of them in 2025. The deadline is the statute of limitations of the state where the claim could have been filed, which for most Thorpe claimants is California's, so a new diagnosis should be acted on quickly. Every claim needs a $250 filing fee, refunded when the claim is allowed.
WHY THRONEBERRY LAW GROUP
Thorpe is a trust where the lawyering changes the number. The same mesothelioma can be worth 0.25 or 3.0 times the base case depending on which listed site the proof lands on and in which years, whether the claimant was living when the claim was filed, and whether the economic and medical loss is documented above the thresholds. Many Thorpe sites drop from Standard to Very Low after the construction years, so the dates in the work history matter as much as the names. We match the history against the 656-site list and the Long Beach ship list, build the declarations with the foundation the trust demands, document the loss figures, and file while the claimant is living when we can. 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 Thorpe Insulation Settlement Trust website (tistrust.com): the home, About the Trust, Trust Documents, Claims Packet, Policies, Trust Representatives, and Contact pages and the 2010 through 2025 notice archives; the Sixteenth Annual Report and Accounting, Audited Financial Statements, and Claim Report filed April 28, 2026 in Case No. 2:07-bk-20016-BB (Bankr. C.D. Cal.), including the Seventh Amendment to and Complete Restatement of the TDP, the Fourth Amendment to and Complete Restatement of the Case Valuation Matrix, and the Claim Report as of December 31, 2025; the Modification to Case Valuation Matrix posted May 28, 2026; the TIST Site List (September 2020); and the TIST Ships Repaired List (March 2015). 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.
GET A FREE CASE REVIEW
If you or a family member worked at a Southern California refinery, power plant, or shipyard, served on a ship repaired at Long Beach Naval Shipyard, or worked construction on a listed Los Angeles building, the Thorpe Insulation trust may owe a payment, and the same history often supports claims against several other 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.
Get the Help You Deserve
To schedule your initial consultation, please fill out the form or call 888.506.1131
"*" indicates required fields
