Guidance Document Database

Because benefit increases became effective through collective bargaining agreements (not specific action by the Board of Trustees), PBGC looks to the adoption and effective dates of those agreements to apply the five-year phase-in rule.

Individual account plan is exempt from coverage under Title IV.

Individual account plan exemption from coverage.

The plan must pay premiums to PBGC for annuitants covered by an insurance contract that does not provide for irrevocable commitments to pay the benefits.

Addresses the applicability of the “sale of assets exception: to the construction industry complete withdrawal rules.

Title IV does not cover Individual account plans or welfare plans.

Addresses the calculation of partial withdrawal liability and why the allocation fraction uses a ratio of contribution base units as opposed to contributions.

Addresses the meaning of “total amount contributed” for the purpose of the denominators in PBGC’s interim regulation on withdrawal liability alternative allocation methods.

Surveying and engineering design consultant is a professional individual for purposes of the Professional Service Employer plan coverage exemption.

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

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.

Provides information about PBGC’s review of corporate transactions or events that may pose an increased risk to single-employer pension plans.

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

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.

Describes the penalty for failing to timely provide required premium related information to PBGC.

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.

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).

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

Reviews information that PBGC finds helpful and factors that PBGC considers in reviewing multiemployer plan proposals for alternative terms and conditions to satisfy withdrawal liability.

Addresses PBGC’s policy on accepting and responding to amended premium filings based on recharacterization of contributions.

Describes the revised penalty for failing to timely provide required information to PBGC in standard terminations and sufficient distress terminations.