Guidance Document Database

Addresses the special partial withdrawal rule for the retail food industry, and the meaning of “retail food industry.”

Professional service employer plans and individual account plans are excluded from coverage.

A profit-sharing benefit in the plan is nonforfeitable and a pension benefit because the plan states it may be paid as an annuity. Because PBGC guarantees and pays the benefit as an annuity, it won’t be paid in a lump sum if the plan is insufficient.

Addresses the determination of withdrawal liability and the procedure to dispute withdrawal liability.

Plan does not meet the Professional Service Employer plan exemption. Plan is covered under Title IV because number of active participants exceeds 25.

Discusses the difference between a multiemployer plan and a multiple employer plan and the termination provisions applicable to the latter.

A reportable event takes place with the merger of a single employer plan into a multiemployer plan.

The sale by a parent corporation with a division that maintains a pension plan with nonforfeitable benefits which are not funded of $1 million or more of an incorporated subsidiary, irrespective of its relative size, results in a reportable event.

This opinion letter declines to provide an opinion on the meaning of “substantially all” for the purposes of determining whether a substantially all mass withdrawal has occurred.

Addresses bond waivers and withdrawal liability and how regulations do not apply to the liquidation bond upon seller’s liquidation.

Addresses the calculation of guaranteed benefits; PBGC measures benefits using plan factors at date of plan termination.

Regards a statutory provision under which a contributing employer to a multiemployer plan does not withdraw from the plan because it ceases to exist due to a change in organizational form if there is no interruption in the employer's contributions or obligation to contribute; addresses whether that exception to withdrawal applies to an employer that sells its assets where the purchaser takes over the seller's name, plant, and employees.

A plan maintained by a company under contract to provide services for a Federal agency does not meet the Governmental plan coverage exemption.

$20 minimum in the regulation is not subject to actuarial adjustment for the participant’s age at the time the benefit started.

Addresses whether a corporation that has an obligation to contribute to a multiemployer plan withdraws from the plan if the corporation's parent sells its shares.

Fully insured plans are required to pay premiums.

Plan is not exempt from coverage under Title IV because of Canadian participants.

Addresses whether a union decertification can cause a withdrawal.

Addresses (1) how withdrawal liability should be assessed when the contributing employer is a partnership, and (2) whether an employer continues to perform work of the type and jurisdiction covered by a collective bargaining agreement for purposes of determining whether a withdrawal has occurred.

PBGC’s position requiring distribution of assets as soon as practicable after PBGC’s 60-day review does not apply to surplus assets when there is a dispute concerning distribution.

Provider of advertising and public relations services is not a professional individual for purposes of the Professional Service Employer plan exemption.

Addresses a plan sponsor’s obligations when a plan terminates by mass withdrawal, including the payment of benefits to participants in a terminated plan.

Artist-designer is not a professional individual for purposes of the Professional Service Employer plan exemption.

Laid-off employees may accrue guaranteed benefits up to date of plan termination.

Individual account plan is exempt from coverage under Title IV.