Guidance Document Database

Addresses whether a reciprocity agreement operates to impose on certain employers and defined contribution pension plans the minimum contribution requirements or the withdrawal liability provisions of the law.

Addresses whether a withdrawal liability overpayment must be refunded by a multiemployer plan sponsor to an employer where the plan sponsor subsequently discovers the underlying calculation error and the employer had failed to initiate the plan review and arbitration process.

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.

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

Answers common questions about eligibility and applications for partitions of multiemployer plans.

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

Discusses how the PBGC's maximum guarantee limit works under the multiemployer insurance program and explains an increase in maximum guarantee limit for participants in multiemployer plans.

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.

Clarifies the Line 14 Instructions for the Schedule R (Form 5500) and provides partial reporting relief for completing Line 14 for the 2009 plan year.

Expands on guidance in Technical Update 07-3 on lump sum valuation issues for single-employer plans that terminate in a standard termination. Applies to plans that terminate on or after the effective date of certain amendments to the law as enacted by the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA 2006) concerning how to apply the PPA 2006 changes in the interest rate and mortality table used in calculating minimum lump sum amounts.

Guidance on lump sum valuation issues for single-employer plans that terminate in a standard termination with a termination date prior to, and a final distribution date on or after, the effective date of changes in the interest rate and mortality table used in calculating minimum lump sum values under the Pension Protection Act.

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.

Addresses whether or not an 18-month contribution holiday is a partial withdrawal.

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.