Guidance Document Database

PBGC guaranteed benefits are not impacted by funding difficulties, and an employer is liable to PBGFC to the extent guaranteed benefits exceed plan assets

PBGC approval is not needed to merge a single employer plan into a multiemployer plan, but such a transaction would be a reportable event.

PBGC, once it is appointed statutory trustee of a terminated plan, pays lump sums to participants entitled to small benefits.

Addresses the legal effect of PBGC approval of a multiemployer plan amendment.

A plan where participants are eligible for benefits as calculated from time to time by an actuary is a defined benefit plan providing basic benefits.

PBGC is precluded from guaranteeing expanded benefits to which participants would become entitled to (become nonforfeitable) upon the plan’s termination.

Employer is an association of medical doctors, principal business is administrative in nature. Plan does not meet the Professional Service Employer plan exemption.

Review of rules governing plan administration after mass withdrawal; modification of withdrawal liability payment schedules; and recharacterization of contributions as withdrawal liability payments.

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.

Addresses the exclusion of employee contributions in withdrawal liability allocation fractions.

Management consultant is not a professional individual for purposes of the Professional Service Employer plan coverage exemption.

A plan was not a successor plan to another plan, because both plans existed during the same plan year.

A death benefit is not a pension benefit and as such is treated as a liability before plan termination and must be deducted from the plan’s available assets.

Disability benefits that become payable after the date of plan termination are not guaranteed.

Disability benefits guaranteed where participants satisfied plan conditions necessary to receive the benefit before the date of plan termination.

Employer’s principal business is the installation of cathodic protection systems, employer is not a Professional Service Employer and plan is covered under Title IV.