On December 17, the IRS issued Notice 2011-3. This Notice provides guidance on single-employer defined benefit plan elections under the Pension Relief Act of 2010. The Notice provides that the deadline for electing to extend the amortization period is the latest of: (1) the last day of the plan year, (2) 30 days after the […]Read More… from Employers Must Act Quickly to Elect Pension Relief for 2009 or 2010
The Federal Reserve has posted the November Treasury interest rates. The 10 year constant maturity yield is 2.76%, which is near a record low. This rate is the basis for many cash balance plan interest crediting rates. Perhaps this low growth rate will inspire plan sponsors to change the interest credit index. This is allowed […]Read More… from Cash Balance Interest Credits: Rates Near Record Lows
As we speculated a few weeks ago, the IRS has extended the deadline for plan sponsors to amend their plan documents to comply with certain law changes under PPA and WRERA. Notice 2010-77 essentially just adds a year to the previously extended deadlines from Notice 2009-97. These extensions may be a moot point for many […]Read More… from Explanation of 436 and Hybrid Plan Amendment Extensions
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
The IRS just published the retirement plan limits for 2011. Most of the limits for retirement plans are unchanged – again. They’re the same as 2009 and 2010: Maximum annual pension plan benefit $195,000 Maximum annual addition for defined contribution plans 49,000 Maximum 401(k) elective deferral 16,500 Maximum catchup contribution (age 50 and over) 5,500 […]Read More… from 2011 IRS Pension Limits and Social Security Wage Base
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
