Guidance documents database

Plan must be communicated to eligible participants to be tax qualified and a Title IV covered plan.

Plan administrator must allocate assets to participant receiving early retirement benefits and may not allocate assets to participants whose benefit claims had been fully satisfied prior to termination of plan.

Plan of Canadian company with mostly Canadian participants is not covered under Title IV.

Benefits which became vested solely on account of termination are not guaranteed.

Asset purchaser assuming some pension plans not successor corporation to the seller with respect to plans left with the seller; purchaser is liable for plans it assumed; liability to PBGC is not limited by any agreement between seller and purchaser as to the amount of liability purchaser was willing to assume.

Whether interest and penalties assessed by PBGC for the late payment of premiums respecting a multiemployer plan can be paid from plan assets.

Addresses (1) the calculation of annual withdrawal liability payments where an employer contributes to a multiemployer plan under multiple collective bargaining agreements requiring different contribution rates (the "contract-by-contract" approach); (2) using the contract-by-contract approach to calculate an employer's required contribution rate following plan termination by amendment; (3) whether alternate interest rates may be used to calculate the value of benefits under the plan following a mass withdrawal; (4) the correction of prior errors in valuation when calculating withdrawal liability.

Addresses a request to use employer contributions, PBGC financial assistance, and other monies received by a plan to pay union dues for retirees and beneficiaries.

Food broker is not a professional individual for purposes of the Professional Service Employer plan exemption.

Plan is a Governmental plan; water authority created by statute; board appt by town's council, funded by water assessments, fund pays for plan including deficits upon termination, participants are water authority's employees

Addresses trustees’ ability to adopt alternative withdrawal liability rules under ERISA sections 4219 and 4224 that modify an employer's withdrawal liability payment terms to take into account an employer's financial condition.

Discusses four plans in one plan document with one trust. Sale of a unit and separation of the unit’s assets from the master trust is not a reportable event, nor a termination of one of the plans.

Discusses PBGC’s interpretation of the present value of the normal form of benefit provided by the plan payable at normal retirement age.

PBGC must be given a multiemployer plan’s notice of merger.

Addresses variances from the bond/escrow and contract-language prerequisites to the asset sale exception to withdrawal.

A participant who has completed the requisite number of years of service and has attained retirement age has a nonforfeitable vested benefit in the plan, even if he has not ended his employment as the time of plan termination.

Addresses the calculation of withdrawal liability in a situation where several members of a controlled group have an obligation to contribute to the same multiemployer pension plan and are sold or liquidated in a series of transactions.

Economist is a professional individual for purposes of the Professional Service Employer plan coverage exemption.

Addresses the circumstances under which a bankruptcy proceeding may give rise to withdrawal liability.

Plan of an employer located in Canada that is a division of a company incorporated in the US is a foreign plan and is not covered under Title IV.

A split-up of one plan and the termination of another is not subject to the asset reversion implementation guidelines; PBGC recognizes the termination and reestablishment of a plan.

Plan of transit system acquired by county is excluded from coverage.

Excess assets do not revert to the plan sponsor.

Discusses mechanics of converting defined benefit plan to an individual account plan.

Plan assets must be allocated in succession to the benefits described in each of the six priority categories established by statute.