Guidance Document Database

Describes PBGC’s revised policy on assessing penalties for failing to timely provide required information to PBGC.

Answers common questions on liability and notice requirements following a substantial cessation of operations.

General information on submitting domestic relations orders to PBGC after PBGC becomes trustee of a terminated pension plan and the procedures PBGC follows to determine whether an order is a qualified domestic relations order

PBGC’s Freedom of Information Act Guide

Provides information about PBGC’s review of corporate transactions or events that may pose an increased risk to single-employer pension plans.

Addresses PBGC’s policy on accepting and responding to amended premium filings based on recharacterization of contributions.

Provides relief from certain premium penalties and in certain situations involving alternative premium funding target elections.

Provides guidance on the bonding and escrow requirements imposed on employers that sell their assets.

Clarifies that any multiemployer plan that is not amended to adopt a non-presumptive allocation method is required to allocate unfunded vested benefits using the presumptive method.

Describes the penalty for failing to timely provide required premium related information to PBGC.

Describes the revised penalty for failing to timely provide required information to PBGC in standard terminations and sufficient distress terminations.

Provides information on filing a standard termination, distribution of benefits, and standard termination audits

Discusses how the PBGC's maximum guarantee limit works under the multiemployer insurance program and explains an increase in maximum guarantee limit for participants in multiemployer plans.

Guidance on determining the present value of the maximum benefit guaranteed by PBGC.

Provides simplified methods for the application of the statutory requirement that multiemployer plans in critical status disregard certain benefit reductions in determining the plan's unfunded vested benefits for purposes of determining an employer's withdrawal liability under section 4201 of ERISA.

Clarifies the Line 14 Instructions for the Schedule R (Form 5500) and provides partial reporting relief for completing Line 14 for the 2009 plan year.

Expands on guidance in Technical Update 07-3 on lump sum valuation issues for single-employer plans that terminate in a standard termination. Applies to plans that terminate on or after the effective date of certain amendments to the law as enacted by the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA 2006) concerning how to apply the PPA 2006 changes in the interest rate and mortality table used in calculating minimum lump sum amounts.

Guidance on lump sum valuation issues for single-employer plans that terminate in a standard termination with a termination date prior to, and a final distribution date on or after, the effective date of changes in the interest rate and mortality table used in calculating minimum lump sum values under the Pension Protection Act.

Once irrevocable commitments are purchased, PBGC no longer guarantees the benefits.

Addresses the contribution periods used in calculating an employer’s allocable share of a multiemployer plan’s unfunded vested benefits for the last plan year ending before April 29, 1980.

Addresses the bond requirement under section 4204 in the event the seller liquidates or distributes its assets subsequent to the sale.

Addresses whether a partial withdrawal occurs when an employer that operates two terminals in a metropolitan area, each under a separate collective bargaining agreement requiring contributions to the same multiemployer plan, closes one terminal but continues to perform the work of the closed terminal through the remaining terminal and other outlying terminals.

Addresses the proper method for determining withdrawal liability when the liable employer is a group of trades or businesses under common control within the meaning of section 4001.