WASHINGTON — The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) today announced the relaunch of its Opinion Letter Program. This initiative provides meaningful compliance assistance to the public by answering questions about how PBGC would apply the law to specific factual circumstances.
“The Opinion Letter Program is a crucial tool in the Corporation’s ongoing efforts to provide the public with clear and consistent guidance,” PBGC Director Janet Dhillon said. “We want the pension community to view PBGC as a resource that helps them provide greater retirement security for the nation’s workers, retirees, and their families.”
PBGC’s Office of the General Counsel will issue opinion letters in response to requests received from the public. These opinion letters will provide the Corporation’s views on the meaning of the provisions of Title IV of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act and their application to individual fact patterns.
PBGC’s website provides instructions for requesting an opinion letter from the Corporation. Interested parties can also see all opinion letters in a searchable database.
About PBGC
PBGC protects the retirement security of about 30 million American workers, retirees, and beneficiaries in both single-employer and multiemployer private sector pension plans. The agency’s two insurance programs are legally separate and operationally and financially independent. PBGC is directly responsible for the benefits of nearly 1.4 million participants and beneficiaries in failed single-employer pension plans. The Single-Employer Program is financed by insurance premiums, investment income, and assets and recoveries from failed single-employer plans. The Multiemployer Program is financed by insurance premiums and investment income. Special financial assistance for financially troubled multiemployer plans is financed by general taxpayer monies.