Guidance documents database

PBGC must be given a multiemployer plan’s notice of merger.

Allocation of assets of terminating plan otherwise than in accordance with section 4044 is not allowed. Transfer of asset to a defined contribution plan requires that all participants be offered option for immediate receipt of their benefits.

PBGC did not guarantee benefits for a terminated plan, the termination of which was done in concert with the establishment of new retirement arrangements designed to provide substantially the same benefits.

Addresses whether an employer may contractually modify its statutory withdrawal liability obligation to a multiemployer plan by assuming "additional liability", and the limitations of such a modification.

Discusses benefit guaranty and its limits for a retiree receiving monthly benefits from an ongoing plan.

Addresses the transfer of surplus assets to another trust after plan termination.

Forester is not a professional individual for purposes of the Professional Service Employer plan exemption.

The only participant entitled to be credited with service or receive a benefit under the plan has continuously fallen within the definition of a "substantial owner.”

Whether the facts of a plan’s intended termination provide that PBGC should restore the plan to its pre-termination date status.

Discusses the definition of “employer” in the context of withdrawal liability and how it applies to a group of trades or businesses under common control; addresses the rules governing partial withdrawals.

Individual account plan is exempt from coverage.

Addresses the definition of withdrawal for a construction industry employer.

A plan maintained exclusively for substantial owners is exempt from coverage under Title IV.

The purchase of participating group annuity contracts to satisfy all accrued benefits with a termination/reestablishment transaction of a plan is permissible.

Addresses whether certain types of labor disputes involving an employer’s employees would constitute a withdrawal from a multiemployer plan and specifically cites strikes and lockouts as examples.

Addresses what may constitute a complete or partial withdrawal from a multiemployer plan as a result of certain events occurring during contract negotiations; addresses the labor dispute exemption from withdrawal liability.

Addresses the definition of “building and construction industry” and explains that the term should be given the same meaning as it has under the Taft-Hartley Act.

Provides that because guaranteed benefits are determined at time of plan termination, a clause in a plan that provides for the cessation of benefits in pay status of participants who violate prohibitions against certain competitive employment will be determined at such time that the clause becomes applicable to a participant.

Conditions under which PBGC would allow a company to restore its pension plan after filing a notice to terminate.

A plan operating under a favorable IRS determination letter is covered under Title IV.

Discusses and compares a seller's withdrawal liability risks and obligations pre-MPPAA and post-MPPAA, and whether an employer's failure to object to an estimate of withdrawal liability (for informational purposes) bars that employer from challenging that underlying estimate upon a subsequent actual assessment of withdrawal liability.

The fact that a benefit formula may be modified by a plan amendment does not alter the defined benefit nature of the plan.  If the plan is amended to convert it to an individual account plan, it would be treated as terminated.

Addresses the definition of the term "building and construction industry" for purposes of the construction industry exception to withdrawal.

Addresses the required transfer of assets and benefit liabilities following a change in the collective bargaining representative of a group of employees who then participate in another multiemployer plan.

Plans funded exclusively by individual insurance or annuity policies are exempt from coverage under Title IV.