Guidance Document Database

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.

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

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.

Provides information about PBGC’s review of corporate transactions or events that may pose an increased risk to single-employer pension plans.

Answers common questions on liability and notice requirements following a substantial cessation of operations.

Initial determination that notice of intent to terminate not valid where not issued by plan administrator, where company argued it was de facto plan administrator but plan clearly identified board to be created as plan administrator.

States the conditions that must be met for the sale of assets exception to withdrawal liability to apply; buyer did not comply with the bond/escrow and sale contract requirements.

Plan is not an Individual account plan because it does not provide for individual accounts for each participant. Plan is covered under Title IV.

A letter of credit can satisfy the bond or escrow requirement of the trucking industry exemption from withdrawal liability.

Implementation guidelines do not generally apply to a transfer of assets from a single-employer plan to a multiemployer plan, followed by the termination of the single-employer plan, but because plan termination is a prerequisite to a reversion of plan assets to an employer, PBGC will not recognize a plan termination when it is intended as a means to recover surplus plan assets without satisfying termination requirements.

A proposal to allocate post termination gains in plan assets to increase a participant’s benefits is not permissible.

PBGC examines financial information of an employer and all trades or businesses under the same common control to assess the employer’s hardship or necessity for deferred payments to meet liability.

Addresses whether foreign entities that are part of a controlled group are jointly liable for withdrawal liability.

Employees that are eligible for retirement but continue to work for a new employer after a company purchases it are not treated as retirees.

Whether an employer that purchased a division of another company and rehired its employees would be treated as a successor corporation and assume liability for existing plans.

Licensed veterinarians are “licensed practitioners of the healing arts” for purposes of the Professional Service Employer plan exemption.

Profit sharing plan is an Individual account plan which is exempt from coverage under Title IV.