Office of the PBGC Participant and Plan Sponsor Advocate (OPPSA)The advocate

The Advocate’s 2019 Annual Report identified a variety of positive improvements made by PBGC in response to past Advocate recommendations to address participant and plan sponsor concerns. Notable plan sponsor-related changes included making PBGC’s Mediation Program permanent, improving Early Warning Program communications, and offering a pre-filing consultation for ERISA section 4010 filings. Participant-related positive strides included the continued success of PBGC’s interagency initiative with the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration Regional offices to help reunite participants and beneficiaries with unclaimed pension benefits as well as PBGC’s consolidation of potentially omitted participants case review into PBGC’s Office of Benefits Administration.

The Report also highlighted areas where participants and plan sponsors still face challenges when dealing with PBGC. Many of these challenges involved a lack of effective coordination among and between PBGC departments which contributes to confusion and delays in resolving plan sponsor and participant disputes with the agency. Other notable recommendations included issuing guidance so PBGC can pay plan sponsors interest on premium overpayments and increasing oversight of the Office of Benefits Administration’s Field Benefit Administration offices.

The Report also introduced the Office of the Advocate’s new initiative to create a Pension Plan Registry which would provide a tracing service so participants and plan sponsors can track what happened to a pension plan.

For more information, including the Advocate’s comments and recommendations, visit the 2019 Annual Report.

2018 – Participant and Plan Sponsor Issues at a Glance

The Advocate’s 2018 Annual Report marked the five-year anniversary of establishing the position of the Advocate at PBGC. While the Report identified the below issues faced by participants and plan sponsors, it also highlighted positive changes PBGC has made in response to prior recommendations by the Advocate. The 2018 Annual Report also contained legislative suggestions to strengthen the Office of the Advocate’s enabling legislation based on the Office’s past five years of experience assisting participants and plan sponsors resolve disputes with the corporation.

Participant Issues:

• Generic communications are inadequate to address complex issues.
• Failure to gather all information on benefit claims hurts participants seeking their benefit entitlements.
• Case management challenges due to lack of contractor supervision.
• Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014.

Plan Sponsor Issues:

• Lack of engaged oversight to promote settlement of stalled cases.
• Protracted negotiations lead to challenges for small employer and charity plan sponsors.
• Lack of clarity in communications with plan sponsors.
• Need for effective coordination and cohesion among different PBGC departments.

Positive Changes Responsive to Advocate Report Recommendations:

• Consolidate the review of potentially omitted participants claims to the Office of Benefits Administration.
• Expansion of the initiative between PBGC and the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration regional offices to help reunite participants with their benefits.
• Provide accessible informal staff guidance concerning Title IV issues for practitioners.
• Plan Sponsor Pilot Mediation Project.
• Established guiding principles for exceptional customer service.

The Report also included the second part of a pension de-risking study commissioned by the Office of the Advocate at the request of plan sponsors which seeks to identify the key causes of de-risking activity as well as PBGC and Congressional actions that could slow pension de-risking activity.

For more information, including the Advocate’s comments and recommendations, visit the 2018 Annual Report.

2017 – Participant and Plan Sponsor Issues at a Glance

The Advocate’s 2017 Annual Report noted positive changes by PBGC which are responsive to past identified plan sponsor concerns, including PBGC’s pilot mediation program and voluntary distress termination pre-filing consultation. The Advocate also highlighted positive participant initiatives, including the publication of a final rule to update PBGC’s Missing Participants regulation and sustained interactions with participant advocacy groups.

Additionally, the Advocate identified the following issues faced by participants and plan sponsors:

Participant Issues:

• Stove-piped departments which hinder participants seeking benefit entitlements.
• Challenges in obtaining documentation relevant to participants’ benefit claims.
• Complex benefit entitlement and omitted participant cases.
• Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014.

Plan Sponsor Issues:

• Lack of ease in doing business with PBGC.
• Lack of transparency and certainty in PBGC’s actions.
• Lack of timeliness.
• Lack of substantive discussion to facilitate prompt settlement.
• Lack of effective coordination and cohesion among various PBGC departments.

For the first time, the Advocate’s Annual Report includes a pension de-risking study commissioned by the Office of the Advocate at the request of plan sponsors which focuses on PBGC and Congressional actions that may slow pension de-risking activity, and highlights the drivers and causes of pension de-risking.

For more information, including the Advocate’s comments and recommendations, visit the 2017 Annual Report.

2016 - Participant and Plan Sponsor Issues at a Glance

The Advocate identified the following themes in the challenges participants and plan sponsors encounter with PBGC in the 2016 Annual Report.

• Interactions with PBGC are adversarial and defensive, rather than collaborative and businesslike, in working toward a mutually agreeable resolution
• There is a lack of transparency in working with PBGC to understand the corporation’s assumptions, resulting in costly and time-consuming interactions with the agency which can go on for months and even years
• PBGC is unwilling to exercise judgment and discretion with participant claims and sponsor penalties, relying almost exclusively on automatic and mechanical-like approaches
• PBGC demands documentation, costly analysis, and historical records that businesses, governmental entities, or participants rarely, if ever, retain

The Advocate also noted positive improvements including PBGC’s release of its proposed Missing Participants Regulation as well as a collaborative effort between PBGC and the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration Chicago Regional Office to reunite participants with their missing participants. The Advocate also highlighted PBGC’s updates to its premium penalty rule which provide extraordinary relief for premium payers by reducing penalty rates for all plans and waiving most of the penalty for plans that meet a standard for good compliance.

For more information, including the Advocate’s comments and recommendations, visit the 2016 Annual Report

2015 - Plan Sponsor Issues at a Glance

The Advocate identified the following issues in the 2015 Annual Report. For more information, including the Advocate's comments and recommendations on these issues, visit the Report.

• PBGC Must Improve Relations with Plan Sponsor
• Premiums and Premium Penalties Need a Fresh Look
• PBGC's Early Warning Program
• Reportable Events Regulations

2015 - Plan Participant Issues at a Glance

The Advocate identified the following issues in the 2015 Annual Report. For more information, including the Advocate's comments and recommendations on these issues, visit the Report.

• Complex Benefit Entitlement and Omitted Participant Cases
• Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 (MPRA)
• Consultation with the Participant Advocacy Groups and PBGC
• Interagency Coordination and Participant Benefit Entitlements

2014 - Plan Sponsor Issues at a Glance

The Advocate identified the following issues in the 2014 Annual Report. For more information, including the Advocate's comments and recommendations on these issues, visit the Report.

• Improvement of PBGC's working relationships with sponsors: There is a need for PBGC to shift to a less adversarial and more collegial partnership approach in working with the Plan Sponsor community.
• ERISA section 4062(e): There are unresolved issues related to PBGC enforcement of ERISA section 4062(e).
• Communicating PBGC's numbers: There is a need for a more substantive response from PBGC regarding certain financial information, such as how PBGC calculates its liabilities and how PBGC manages and invests its assets.
• Premium penalties: There is a need for more exploration on the issues surrounding premium penalties.

2014 - Plan Participant Issues at a Glance

The Advocate identified the following issues in the 2014 Annual Report. For more information, including the Advocate's comments and recommendations on these issues, visit the Report.

• Non-routine individual requests to PBGC for assistance: Although PBGC has defined processes for responding to participant calls about trusteed plan benefits, participant requests involving complicated or uncommon issues, including "woodwork" or "omitted" participants, may fall outside PBGC's customer service goals and present special challenges.
• Frequent and continuing consultation with Participant organizations: Plan sponsor-based organizations meet regularly with PBGC senior officials and offer PBGC the opportunity to attend professional events and provide updates that address relevant issues. Although Participant organizations have contacts with PBGC and are able to arrange occasional meetings, there is a lack of a regularized, continued practice of communication among PBGC and the participant organizations.
• Improved communication with Participant and Retiree organizations about PBGC's finances and operations: Participant and Retiree organizations are as engaged as sponsor organizations in discussions about PBGC's current financial strength, outlook for the future, premium needs, and more, and would prefer more information-sharing, more of an understanding of current data and trends, and less rapid movement to summary and conclusion.
• Additional items for exploration: There are outstanding issues raised by participant and retiree organizations such as lump sum distributions from plans trusteed by PBGC, church plans, and guidance addressing issues generated by de-risking transactions.