Guidance Document Database

Conditions under which PBGC would allow a company to restore its pension plan after filing a notice to terminate.

A plan operating under a favorable IRS determination letter is covered under Title IV.

Discusses and compares a seller's withdrawal liability risks and obligations pre-MPPAA and post-MPPAA, and whether an employer's failure to object to an estimate of withdrawal liability (for informational purposes) bars that employer from challenging that underlying estimate upon a subsequent actual assessment of withdrawal liability.

The fact that a benefit formula may be modified by a plan amendment does not alter the defined benefit nature of the plan.  If the plan is amended to convert it to an individual account plan, it would be treated as terminated.

Addresses the definition of the term "building and construction industry" for purposes of the construction industry exception to withdrawal.

Addresses the required transfer of assets and benefit liabilities following a change in the collective bargaining representative of a group of employees who then participate in another multiemployer plan.

Closing plant covering 6% of the employees in the plan is not a reportable event. Failure to pay benefits when due would be a reportable event.

Plans funded exclusively by individual insurance or annuity policies are exempt from coverage under Title IV.

Individual account plan exemption from coverage.

Provides guidance on the meaning of "employer" with respect to withdrawals from multiemployer pension plans; focuses on the garment industry and in particular, the work done by the contractor and the jobber/manufacturer.

Discusses whether the sale of stock constitutes a withdrawal from a multiemployer plan and whether the sale of assets rule applies.

Plan of an entity chartered by the US Congress does not meet the Governmental plan coverage exemption.

Absence of provision in plan allowing reversion of excess plan assets to the employer means that the requirements for reversion of excess assets to employer not met.

Plan is governed by laws of Virgin Islands. Plan is not a qualified plan and is exempt from coverage under Title IV.

Addresses (1) whether vested ancillary benefits may be included in the calculation of unfunded vested benefits; (2) the meaning of "nonforfeitable benefit"; (3) what actuarial assumptions may be used to calculate unfunded vested benefits.

Addresses the rules governing the transfer of assets from multiemployer plan to single-employer plan; addresses the withdrawal liability consequences of transferring assets to a single employer plan.

PBGC accepted the withdrawal of a plan’s notice of intent to terminate because employers would continue to make contributions pursuant to their collective bargaining agreements and the plan participants would continue to receive credit under the plan for service with contributing employers.

Title IV excludes a defined benefit plan to the extent it is treated as an Individual account plan under 1002(35)(B).

Initial determination that notice of intent to terminate not valid where not issued by plan administrator, where company argued it was de facto plan administrator but plan clearly identified board to be created as plan administrator.

States the conditions that must be met for the sale of assets exception to withdrawal liability to apply; buyer did not comply with the bond/escrow and sale contract requirements.

Plan is not an Individual account plan because it does not provide for individual accounts for each participant. Plan is covered under Title IV.

A letter of credit can satisfy the bond or escrow requirement of the trucking industry exemption from withdrawal liability.

Implementation guidelines do not generally apply to a transfer of assets from a single-employer plan to a multiemployer plan, followed by the termination of the single-employer plan, but because plan termination is a prerequisite to a reversion of plan assets to an employer, PBGC will not recognize a plan termination when it is intended as a means to recover surplus plan assets without satisfying termination requirements.

A proposal to allocate post termination gains in plan assets to increase a participant’s benefits is not permissible.

PBGC examines financial information of an employer and all trades or businesses under the same common control to assess the employer’s hardship or necessity for deferred payments to meet liability.