Sepco Asbestos Trust Claims

If you worked around industrial gaskets and packing, on pumps, valves, and piping in refineries, chemical plants, power houses, or factories, and a mesothelioma or other asbestos diagnosis has now come in, the sealing products Sepco made may be part of the reason, and the company left behind a trust built to pay these claims.

For decades, Sepco Corporation, originally the Sealing Equipment Products Company, made the asbestos gaskets and packing that sealed the joints and stems of industrial equipment against heat and pressure. Cutting those gaskets to fit, scraping the old ones off, and pulling and cutting packing all put asbestos dust into the air the workers breathed. One thing sets Sepco apart from most asbestos trusts: the company kept selling asbestos sealing products well into the 1980s, and certain gaskets into the early 1990s, so this trust reaches exposure from years that most trusts shut out.

You don't need to remember product names or have old job records in hand. The trust accepts sworn statements, coworker accounts, and work histories to document exposure, and reconstructing that is our job, not yours. The company itself has been dissolved, so a claim doesn't touch any working business. One thing does matter, though, and it's timing: the deadlines for this trust depend on your dates, and some have already closed while others are still open, so it's worth calling promptly. If you can tell us where you worked and when, we have a place to start.

What the Sepco trust pays

The trust assigns a single set value to each of five disease levels, with mesothelioma at the top, and adjusts those values up by 1% each year. The figures below are the scheduled values; we confirm the current year's figures when a claim is filed.

These are the values for the fast track, Expedited Review. The trust also offers an Individual Review path, where a claim can be valued above the scheduled amount on its specific facts, and for serious claims we weigh whether that path is worth pursuing.

Two things matter when you read these values. First, the trust doesn't pay the listed amount in full; it pays a percentage of it, currently 10%, so a mesothelioma claim at the scheduled value comes to around $5,300. Second, almost no one's exposure to Sepco gaskets and packing was their only asbestos exposure. The same equipment carried other makers' gaskets, packing, and insulation, and most of those companies left their own trusts. For most people the Sepco claim is one piece of a larger recovery built across the whole work history.

How Sepco's products exposed workers to asbestos

Sepco didn't mine asbestos. It made sealing products: the gaskets that sealed the flanged joints of industrial piping and equipment, and the packing that sealed the moving stems of valves and pumps. Both had to hold against heat and pressure, and for decades Sepco made them with asbestos, which is what the industry used for that job. The company's line ran from sheet and ring gaskets to the spiral-wound and semi-metallic gaskets used on the most demanding high-pressure connections, along with asbestos packing, tubing, and thermal insulation.

The exposure came from working with them, which in this trade meant constant cutting and tearing out. Fitting a gasket meant cutting it to shape, often from sheet stock, which raised dust. Servicing a joint meant scraping and wire-brushing the old gasket off the flange faces, where heat had baked it hard, which raised more. Repacking a valve or pump meant pulling the old, dried packing out of the stuffing box and cutting new packing to length. Every one of those tasks released asbestos fiber, and on a working site they were done over and over, day after day, in the refineries, chemical plants, power houses, and factories where this equipment ran.

That reached the workers who handled the gaskets and packing directly, the pipefitters, millwrights, mechanics, and maintenance crews, and the people working alongside them in the same units and machine rooms. When a flange was broken and a gasket ground off, the dust didn't stay with the man holding the tool.

A Sepco claim also rarely stands alone. The same pump, valve, or pipe run that carried a Sepco gasket carried gaskets, packing, and insulation from a dozen other makers, and the same work exposed a worker to all of it. We come back to that below, because it's where much of the recovery is. To understand how this sealing work released asbestos, see how asbestos gaskets and packing caused exposure and pipefitters, steamfitters, and asbestos exposure.

How the Sepco bankruptcy created the asbestos trust

Sepco was sued over its asbestos products for decades, in well over a hundred thousand claims, and by 2016 the weight of that litigation drove it into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Ohio. It took four years to work out a plan, and in 2020 the courts confirmed it.

What came out of that bankruptcy was a trust, set up under the part of the bankruptcy law written for asbestos, Section 524(g). That section lets a court channel every asbestos claim against a company, the ones already filed and the ones still to surface decades later, into a single trust that pays them in the company's place. The Sepco trust was funded mostly through the company's insurance, along with the company's own remaining value, and it began accepting claims at the end of 2020.

The company is gone now. The reorganized Sepco was wound down and formally dissolved at the end of 2022, with its remaining funds paid over to the trust. That's worth knowing for one reason: a Sepco claim isn't a suit against a working business and doesn't threaten anyone's job. You're filing a claim against a fund, built largely from insurance money, that was set up specifically to pay it.

What the trust pays, and why it's a percentage

The trust pays a set amount based on your diagnosis, with mesothelioma valued at the top, and those scheduled values rise by 1% a year. A claim can be filed on the fast track, Expedited Review, for the scheduled value, or through Individual Review, where the trust weighs the specific facts of a case and can value it above the schedule. For a serious claim we look at whether Individual Review is worth pursuing.

Whichever path, the trust doesn't pay the value in full. Like every asbestos trust, it pays a percentage of it, currently 10%, so a finite fund can reach everyone it owes, including the people who won't be diagnosed for years. That's the same principle behind every bankruptcy: the law shares what there is across everyone harmed, instead of paying a lucky few in full and leaving the rest with nothing. The trust reviews that percentage over time and can adjust it to keep the fund solvent. We confirm the current figure when your claim is filed.

A 10% percentage on a roughly $53,000 mesothelioma value works out to about $5,300, which is a real but modest payment, and it's exactly why the next part matters: a Sepco claim is almost always one piece of a larger recovery, not the whole of it.

Is the Sepco asbestos trust still able to pay?

Yes, and it's in a steadier spot than many older trusts. Here's the picture from its most recent annual report.

• About $19 million on hand. At the end of 2025 the trust held roughly $19 million in net assets. It's a small trust, sized to the company, but a stable one.
• Holding its value. Unlike older trusts that draw down each year, Sepco's fund actually edged up slightly in 2025, because its modest claim payments were outpaced by its investment income. That's a healthy sign for a trust still relatively early in its life.
• Paying at 10%. The trust pays 10% of each claim's value, a rate it reviews over time, and it paid out hundreds of claims in 2025.

The honest framing is the one this page keeps: the Sepco trust is solvent and dependable, but it's a small fund paying modest per-claim amounts, so the claim it pays is one piece of a recovery rather than the whole of it. For a worker exposed to industrial gaskets and packing, that larger recovery is almost always there to build. The trust is open and paying right now. We track the annual reporting and can walk through the full picture with you when you call.

Who qualifies for a Sepco trust claim

A trust claim rests on two things: a qualifying asbestos diagnosis, and proof that you regularly worked with Sepco's asbestos products. The diagnosis side is medical. The exposure side is where the trust's rules come in, and where most of our work happens.

The exposure is to Sepco's gaskets, packing, and related products. The trust pays on credible evidence that you regularly worked with Sepco's asbestos gaskets, packing, tubing, or thermal insulation in conditions that disturbed them, cutting, scraping, grinding, removing, the work that releases fiber. Here's where Sepco differs from most trusts: there's no early cutoff date. Because the company sold asbestos sealing products into the 1980s, and certain gaskets into about 1992, exposure from those later years can qualify, even though most trusts stop at 1982. For a worker whose career ran into the 1980s, that's a real difference.

For mesothelioma, you don't need heavy exposure. Mesothelioma can come from brief, limited exposure, and the trust recognizes that: a meso claim asks for credible exposure to Sepco products and doesn't have to clear the higher dose threshold that applies to the other diseases. That threshold, Significant Occupational Exposure, along with six months of work with Sepco products, applies to the lung cancers, the other cancers, and severe asbestosis. It counts work done near the dust, not only handling it yourself, so a worker who spent his days alongside the gasket and packing work qualifies on that basis.

Timing is its own question, and it's worth a call. Asbestos deadlines are never simple, and Sepco's have an added wrinkle. When the trust opened, it set a single deadline for everyone whose claim had already arisen, people diagnosed years earlier, whose ordinary deadlines had often long since passed, to come forward, and that initial window has now closed. For someone diagnosed more recently, the ordinary deadlines apply, running from the diagnosis. Which rule fits you depends on your dates, so the safe step is to call promptly and let us tell you where your claim stands. We lay out how trust and court deadlines work in our guide to how asbestos trust claims work.

Family members can qualify too. If a worker brought the dust home on his clothes, his hair, his car, a spouse who laundered the work clothes or a child in the household can file on the worker's exposure history, and families regularly file after a death. How take-home asbestos exposure works.

How the trust documents your exposure

The Sepco trust doesn't use a customer-by-customer worksite list; it builds the proof around the work and the product. A sworn statement from you, an account from a coworker who remembers the gasket and packing work, a family member's statement for someone who has passed, and employment records, invoices, and similar documents all count. For a pipefitter, millwright, or mechanic who spent years servicing pumps, valves, and piping, that exposure is usually well within reach to document, even decades later. Putting it together, in the form the trust requires, is our job.

How a Sepco claim gets filed

A trust claim isn't a lawsuit, and that surprises people who expect a courtroom. There's no judge, no jury, no deposition, and no defense lawyer arguing the other side. You're submitting a documented claim to a fund that already exists to pay it, and the trust reviews it against its written rules and pays on its schedule.

What the claim needs is proof of your diagnosis and your regular work with Sepco's asbestos products. Putting that together is our job. We gather the medical records, reconstruct the work history, document the exposure the way the trust's rules require, and decide whether to take the scheduled value or pursue Individual Review. You don't need to have kept paperwork or remember product names to start, but because the timing rules matter here, it's worth calling sooner rather than later.

The fuller mechanics of how trust claims are prepared, filed, and paid are laid out in our guide to how asbestos trust claims work. When you call, we'll tell you what your specific claim is likely to involve, where it stands on the deadlines, and how the timeline tends to run.

A Sepco claim is rarely the only one

Here's the part that changes the math for most families: the Sepco trust is usually one claim out of several, and the others come from the very same work.

A gasket or a length of packing never worked alone. The same pump, valve, and pipe run carried sealing products from many manufacturers, sat inside systems wrapped in other companies' insulation, and stood in plants full of asbestos from end to end. Many of those companies also went bankrupt and left their own asbestos trusts, several of them other gasket and packing makers, and the same maintenance work that exposed a worker to Sepco's products exposed him to all of them. The career that supports your Sepco claim usually supports claims against a whole set of those other trusts, and because each one reviews and pays independently, the claims don't compete. They add up. How asbestos trust claims work.

This matters all the more because Sepco's per-claim values are modest. On its own, a Sepco claim is a meaningful but limited piece. Built alongside the other gasket, packing, and insulation makers' trusts, the lawsuits against companies still in business, and the premises claims against the plant owners, it becomes part of something much larger. We walk through a full worked example, several trusts totaled across one career, in our guide to mesothelioma trust settlement values. The full set of channels beyond the trusts is laid out next.

Sources of compensation beyond the Sepco trust

A Sepco claim usually sits inside a larger recovery, and the channels run in parallel without canceling one another out. We file across all of them that apply.

• Asbestos bankruptcy trusts. Sepco is one, and as the section above explains, the gaskets, packing, and insulation around the same equipment reach a whole set of other trusts, including other sealing-product makers. They review and pay independently, so they stack. How asbestos trust claims work.
• Lawsuits against solvent manufacturers. Several makers of asbestos gaskets, packing, and related products are still in business and can be sued directly for making and selling a product they knew was dangerous, and a lawsuit can recover more than a trust claim, though it takes longer. How asbestos product liability lawsuits work.
• Premises liability against the site owners. The refineries, chemical plants, power houses, and factories where the work was done can be held responsible for the asbestos conditions they allowed on their property, separate from the product makers. How premises liability claims work.
• Federal and disability benefits. Depending on the work, these can include Social Security disability for anyone whose illness stops them from working, VA disability for those who also served in the military, and Longshore benefits for maritime and shipyard work, all paid in addition to the trust and lawsuit recovery. How asbestos disability and benefit claims work.

Your Sepco trust claim has no defenses to answer. It's a paper claim: no opposing lawyer, no deposition, no courtroom, no one arguing the other side. Sepco's asbestos liability was resolved when the trust was funded, and the trust either pays the claim or it doesn't, on its written rules.

Defenses only come up on the lawsuit side, the claims that run alongside the trust against the manufacturers still in business and the premises owners where you worked. Those defendants raise the same handful of arguments they raise in most asbestos cases, and none of them is new to us. The short version is that each one describes a cleaner, smaller version of the work than the one your loved one actually did, and the evidence answers it.