As many plan sponsors and benefits practitioners were hoping for, the PBGC recently released Technical Update 10-4 which provides guidance on how to comply with the proposed amendments to the reportable events regulations for the 2011 plan year. The conclusions are very similar to Technical Updates 09-1, 09-3, and 09-4 which provided guidance for the […]Read More… from 2011 PBGC Reportable Event Waivers
With the passage of PPA, many defined benefit pension plan sponsors must provide an annual notice describing the plan’s funded status to all participants. The Annual Funding Notice (AFN) requirement has been in place since 2008, and our first guidance came in the form of DOL Field Assistance Bulletin 2009-01. As mentioned in our 5500 […]Read More… from Quick Overview of Proposed AFN Regulations
Now that many plan sponsors have completed their 2009 Form 5500 filings for their retirement and welfare plans, they may be wondering about the status of the proposed online posting of these filings. We hadn’t heard much about this requirement lately, but buried in the new proposed DOL Annual Funding Notice regulations is a reference […]Read More… from DOL Online Database of Form 5500 Filings
Many municipalities, school districts, and other governmental entities have established OPEB trusts as a way of starting to prefund their postretirement benefit promises to employees. In addition to the perceived fiscal responsibility of prefunding OPEB benefits, setting aside assets can also help the plan sponsor’s GASB 45 accounting. This post deals with certain situations where the […]Read More… from OPEB Trust Investment Return
Nothing’s official yet, but there are rumors circulating in the benefits community that the IRS may extend the deadline for amending defined benefit pension plan documents for the IRC 436 benefit restriction rules. So, what’s the practical implication for pension plan sponsors? Perhaps not much. Many plan documents were already amended late in 2009 since […]Read More… from Possible 436 Amendment Extension
We’ve been waiting quite a while for some official guidance on many of the technical issues involved with cash balance and other hybrid retirement plans. Last week we received final regulations for some issues, and proposed regulations for others. This post focuses on what constitutes a Market Rate of Return. A brief recap: typically a […]Read More… from Final Hybrid Plan Regs: Market Rate of Return
We are receiving requests from a few multiemployer pension clients to estimate their withdrawal liability as they contemplate getting out of the pension business. One common problem that these clients experience is that the withdrawal liability they get from the pension fund is not as current as they thought it would be. For example, a […]Read More… from Timing of Multiemployer Plan Withdrawal Liability Estimates
We’re starting to see a lot of interest from prospective cash balance plan (CBP) clients as we march towards the end of 2010. Small and midsize businesses are attracted to the large retirement deduction opportunities of CBPs. After explaining the technical details of these plans, prospective clients invariably ask the question: What are the fees […]Read More… from Cash Balance Plan Fees
One of the advantageous provisions of the Pension Protection Act (PPA) is that it removed some technical obstacles limiting the ability of certain plan sponsors to make large deductible contributions to their defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC) retirement plans. The issue in question is the overall “25% of compensation” limit which is intended […]Read More… from Paying for PBGC coverage
In the retiree benefits world, there is a general consensus that several provisions in the Patient Protection and Access to Care Act (PPACA) may cause employer sponsors of retiree health plans to rethink those programs. These changes include: – Filling of the Part D “doughnut hole” (2010-2020) – Guarantee issue insurance with no pre-existing condition […]Read More… from PPACA Starting to Impact Retiree Health Plans
