Guidance Document Database

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.

A terminated multiemployer plan cannot transfer assets and liabilities to other multiemployer plans pursuant to reciprocity agreement.

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 for 5 years and the sales contract makes the seller secondarily liable if the buyer withdraws during the 5 plan years after the sale. This opinion letter addresses whether the buyer may escrow a letter of credit instead of cash.

Discusses premium payment obligations under specific circumstances.

Merger/transfer rules do not apply to merger of a welfare fund and pension fund.

Physician-secretary is a Professional Service Employer plan exempt from Title IV coverage.

A trust under a plan must be "created or organized" in the "United States" and be "maintained at all times as a

Plan is not an Individual account plan and is not exempt from coverage under Title IV.

A plan without a written plan document is not a qualified plan and is excluded from coverage.

Addresses whether the construction industry exception to withdrawal applies where a contractor terminates its CBA, its employees do not perform any more work for which the contractor was previously required to make contributions, but the contractor subcontracts for the performance of such work.

Once irrevocable commitments are purchased, PBGC no longer guarantees the benefits.

Addresses the contribution periods used in calculating an employer’s allocable share of a multiemployer plan’s unfunded vested benefits for the last plan year ending before April 29, 1980.

Addresses the bond requirement under section 4204 in the event the seller liquidates or distributes its assets subsequent to the sale.

Addresses whether a partial withdrawal occurs when an employer that operates two terminals in a metropolitan area, each under a separate collective bargaining agreement requiring contributions to the same multiemployer plan, closes one terminal but continues to perform the work of the closed terminal through the remaining terminal and other outlying terminals.

Addresses the proper method for determining withdrawal liability when the liable employer is a group of trades or businesses under common control within the meaning of section 4001.

Employer providing consulting services in bio-mechanics, forensic physics, traffic reconstruction, injury analysis, and automotive and traffic safety is a Professional Services Employer and is exempt under Title IV.

Addresses the definition of employer in the context of building cleaners at an office building.

Amendment of a plan from a defined benefit plans to an individual account plan results in the plan’s termination.

Addresses calculation of withdrawal liability for a "joint employer” that is no longer required to contribute.

Plan must be communicated to eligible participants to be tax qualified and a Title IV covered plan.