Guidance Document Database

Employer providing consulting services in bio-mechanics, forensic physics, traffic reconstruction, injury analysis, and automotive and traffic safety is a Professional Services Employer and is exempt under Title IV.

Addresses the definition of employer in the context of building cleaners at an office building.

Amendment of a plan from a defined benefit plans to an individual account plan results in the plan’s termination.

Addresses calculation of withdrawal liability for a "joint employer” that is no longer required to contribute.

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.

This opinion letter addresses whether an QPSAs and other benefits are nonforfeitable after termination of a multiemployer plan such that they should be considered in determining withdrawal liability.

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.

Allocation of assets of terminating plan otherwise than in accordance with section 4044 is not allowed. Transfer of asset to a defined contribution plan requires that all participants be offered option for immediate receipt of their benefits.

PBGC did not guarantee benefits for a terminated plan, the termination of which was done in concert with the establishment of new retirement arrangements designed to provide substantially the same benefits.

Addresses whether an employer may contractually modify its statutory withdrawal liability obligation to a multiemployer plan by assuming "additional liability", and the limitations of such a modification.

Plan is an Individual account plan and is not a covered plan under Title IV.

Discusses benefit guaranty and its limits for a retiree receiving monthly benefits from an ongoing plan.

Addresses the transfer of surplus assets to another trust after plan termination.