Guidance Document Database

Addresses effects on withdrawal liability of a proposed transfer of benefit liabilities from a multiemployer plan to a single-employer plan.

Look to plan documents to determine plan administrator

Assets intended to fund insurance company annuities, but which are retained by the plan are subject to allocation procedures.

Real estate broker is not a professional individual for purposes of the Professional Service Employer plan exemption.

Corrects opinion letter 85-1 and addresses calculation of withdrawal liability installment payments other than on a quarterly schedule.

Plan has not met conditions for coverage since ERISA enacted; Title IV doesn’t apply to the termination of the plan.

“Licensed” or “registered” engineers are “public” engineers under ERISA 4021(c)(2)(B) and the plan is exempt under the Professional Service Employer plan exemption.

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