What Is a Trust Fund Payment Percentage?
A trust fund payment percentage is the portion of a claim's scheduled value that a trust actually pays. For example, if a trust's scheduled value for mesothelioma is $100,000 and the payment percentage is 25%, the claimant receives $25,000. Payment percentages are adjusted periodically to ensure the trust can continue paying both current and future claimants.
How Payment Percentages Work
When asbestos companies filed for bankruptcy, the trust funds established were designed to pay claims for decades into the future. Because the total value of all future claims could exceed the trust's assets, each trust uses a payment percentage to ensure equitable distribution over time. The scheduled value represents the full assessed value of your claim based on your disease category. The payment percentage is applied to that scheduled value to determine your actual payment.
For example, if a trust has a scheduled value of $150,000 for mesothelioma claims and its current payment percentage is 20%, an approved claim would receive $30,000. While this is less than the full scheduled value, it represents the trust's fair distribution of limited resources across all claimants.
Why Percentages Vary
Each trust has its own payment percentage, and these percentages vary widely. Factors that influence a trust's payment percentage include the total assets in the trust, the projected number of future claims, the trust's investment returns, and the outcomes of periodic actuarial reviews. Well-funded trusts with fewer anticipated future claims tend to have higher payment percentages.
Some larger trusts pay at relatively high percentages because they were generously funded at inception. Others have reduced their percentages over time as more claims were filed than originally projected. Your attorney tracks current payment percentages across all trusts to advise you on what to expect.
Maximizing Your Recovery
Even at reduced payment percentages, trust fund claims can provide meaningful compensation because mesothelioma claims carry the highest scheduled values of any disease category. And because you can typically file with multiple trust funds, the total recovery across all applicable trusts often adds up to a substantial sum.
In some cases, choosing individual review rather than expedited review can result in a higher payment. Your attorney evaluates whether the potentially higher recovery from individual review justifies the additional processing time for each trust in your specific situation.
Periodic Adjustments
Trust fund payment percentages are not static. They are reviewed periodically — typically annually or biannually — by the trust's trustees and oversight committees, often with input from a futures representative who advocates for the interests of future claimants. If a trust's financial health improves through investment returns or lower-than-expected claim volume, the payment percentage may increase. If claims exceed projections, it may decrease.
An experienced mesothelioma law firm monitors these adjustments and considers timing when filing claims to maximize recovery for their clients.
- Not full value — trusts pay a percentage of the scheduled claim value, not the full amount
- Varies by trust — payment percentages range from under 5% to over 25% depending on the trust
- Periodically adjusted — percentages change based on the trust's financial health and claim volume
- Mesothelioma gets highest values — mesothelioma claims have the highest scheduled values among all disease categories
Reviewed by: Rod De Llano, J.D. — Texas Bar — 30+ years mesothelioma litigation
Last updated: March 15, 2026
Sources: Government Accountability Office (GAO), Trust Distribution Procedures
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