Guidance documents database

Discusses considerations PBGC would apply in determining whether parent-subsidiary group created a single plan or multiple separate plans managed under a single trust.

A plan with a participant who is the sole stockholder meets the Substantial Owner exemption from plan coverage under Title IV.

Discusses successor plan requirements.

Discusses the calculation of partial withdrawal liability following a 70 percent decline in contributions.

Plan does not meet Title IV coverage exemption since activities covered by the plan were off-reservation commercial activities carried on for profit.

Title IV does not cover deposits made into a Keogh Trust.

Addresses a plan’s notice of intent to terminate, date of plan termination, and the ability to terminate the plan by agreement.

Addresses whether the rule against transactions with a principal purpose to avoid withdrawal liability can apply when a transaction meets the sale of assets exception requirements.

Individual account plan is exempt from coverage under Title IV.

Defined benefit plan was not terminated before enactment of ERISA and is covered by Title IV.

PBGC cannot approve a transaction that would allow an employer to recover excess assets without termination.

Addresses whether, under the presumptive method of allocating withdrawal liability, if a plan's assets exceed its vested liabilities, the unfunded vested benefit amount is zero.

Discusses partial withdrawals from a multiemployer plan.

Actuarially equivalent monthly benefit of a lump sum benefit is guaranteed.

Asset purchaser assuming some plans was not a successor corporation for plans that it did not assume.

Addresses (1) whether transfers of contributions between multiemployer plans under a reciprocity agreement are covered by rules on transfers of assets; and (2) whether a reciprocity agreement can create withdrawal liability obligations.

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.

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.