Guidance Document Database

Addresses applicability to construction industry employers of the sale-of-assets limitation on withdrawal liability.

Whether the method of distribution proposed for a plan is acceptable when the plan administrator is terminating its DB plan and creating a DC plan.

Reaffirms PBGC’s prior review of its determination that a severance benefit provided by the plan is not a guaranteed benefit because it is not a benefit that is payable as an annuity or one or more payments related thereto.

To be excluded from coverage, all employees covered by the plan must be public employees and the political subdivision must be the plan sponsor.

Plan meets the Governmental plan coverage exemption.

Addresses the “unrelated party” requirement for the sale of assets exception to withdrawal liability.

Addresses calculation of the annual withdrawal liability payment amount of an employer that incurred successive partial withdrawals. PBGC subsequently adopted a rule addressing the issue. (See 29 CFR part 4206.)

Addresses abatement rules for employers that reenter a multiemployer plan.

A plan with one participant who is a substantial owner is not covered.

PBGC recognizes pension credits for discharged employees found to have been illegal discharged and reinstated for the period after the illegal discharge and ending with the date of plan termination.

Section 4044 asset allocation rules take precedence over any contrary plan provisions.

A tax qualified defined benefit plan is covered.

Because plan does not provide for reversion of excess assets to sponsor, residual assets must be distributed to plan participants and their beneficiaries, pro rata, in relation to their accrued benefits.

Addresses the individual account plan coverage exemption.

State licensed planner whose company provides consulting services to assist municipal planning boards with development plans, land use studies and housing surveys is a Professional Service Employer and plan is exempt from Title IV coverage.

Where proposed language in CBA will not affect Title IV coverage, it will not prevent PBGC claim for employer liability.

Regards a statutory provision under which a contributing employer to a multiemployer plan that sells its assets to an unrelated buyer does not withdraw from the plan if (among other things) the buyer posts a bond or escrow and the sales contract makes the seller secondarily liable if the buyer withdraws during the 5 plan years after the sale. Addresses calculation of withdrawal liability of an employer that previously sold some of its assets where, under that statutory provision, the asset sale was not a withdrawal.

A plan maintained by a union and funded only by contributions from union members is not covered under Title IV

Whether PBGC will permit a plan to be restored after it has submitted its Notice of its Intent to Terminate.

A restated plan document created an aggregate of single plans and not a single pension plan, with a valid allocation of assets among those separate plans.

Profit sharing plans are excluded from coverage under Title IV.

Addresses whether a multiemployer plan with only one remaining contributing employer continues to be a multiemployer plan.

A plan that in practice met the criteria for tax qualification for five years prior to its termination date was covered under Title IV at plan termination.

Addresses the bond / escrow requirements of section 4204 of ERISA which, if satisfied along with the other 4204 requirements, mean that a sale of assets by a contributing employer will not constitute a withdrawal from a multiemployer plan.

Plan meets the Governmental plan coverage exemption.