Guidance Document Database

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.

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

Answers common questions about PBGC’s Special Financial Assistance program.

Sets forth the requirements for special financial assistance applications and related restrictions and conditions pursuant to the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.

Provides guidelines for changes to certain assumptions that multiemployer plans may use for purposes of determining eligibility for special financial assistance (SFA) and the amount of SFA.

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

Announcement of relief that will generally enable plan sponsors to take advantage of the CARES Act contribution due date extension and still ultimately pay the same variable-rate premium they would have owed had those contributions been made by the regular contribution due date.

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

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

Provides guidelines for changes to certain assumptions that multiemployer plans may use for purposes of determining the amount of SFA.

Guidance on the timing of premium payments for plan years beginning in 2025, which, because of a provision in the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, are generally due a month earlier than the due date provided in PBGC’s Payment of Premiums regulation (29 CFR part 4007).

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

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.

Addresses whether foreign entities that are part of a controlled group are jointly liable for withdrawal liability.