In Announcement 2011-21, the IRS released details regarding filing requirements for the new Form 8955-SSA, which will be used to report participants with deferred vested benefits from an employer-sponsored retirement plan. For calendar year plans, the 2009 8955-SSA due date (without extension) will generally be August 1, 2011. As mentioned in our earlier post on [...]
The proposed 2012 federal budget contains an interesting provision which could dramatically change how PBGC premiums are determined. Here are the main aspects of the proposal: – Gives the PBGC authority to set and adjust premium rates as it sees fit. Currently the PBGC does not have this power, so the change would give the [...]
The DOL recently announced an extension of the deadline for service providers to comply with Section 408(b)(2) regulations. These rules govern the disclosure of fees charged to qualified retirement plans (e.g., 401(k) and defined benefit pension plans). Disclosures were originally required by July 16, 2011, which has now been extended to January 1, 2012. The [...]
Over the past couple of weeks we’ve been previewing some issues that pension plan sponsors may encounter during 2011 (e.g., increases in Annual Funding Notice liabilities and PBGC variable rate premium increases). This post highlights several items that plan sponsors should be aware of as they gear up for their 2011 pension funding valuations. These [...]
As we mentioned in our blog post yesterday, the segment interest rates used for PBGC purposes are historically low right now. The previous post provided details of how this could affect the liabilities reported in the 2010 Annual Funding Notice to participants. This post highlights the impact on plan sponsors’ PBGC variable rate premiums (VRPs) [...]
For calendar year pension plans, the Annual Funding Notice (AFN) to participants is due no later than April 30, 2011. One potential issue with this year’s notice is the impact of low interest rates on the liabilities disclosed in the document. There are two interest rates that affect liabilities in the AFN: – PBGC segment [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
