The Pension Protection Act Blog

Today (April 30th) was the deadline for multiemployer plans to make certain elections described in sections 204 and 205 of the Worker, Retiree, and Employer Recovery Act of 2008 (WRERA). Recognizing that some multiemployer plans need additional time, the IRS issued Notice 2009-42 today, which extends the deadline from April 30, 2009 to June [...]

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In PBGC v. Oneida, No. 08-2964-bk (CA 2nd, April 8, 2009), the Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit reversed the decision of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. The 2nd Circuit found that payments due to the PBGC as a result of an employer’s termination of a pension [...]

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In a sign of the times, Motorola announced that, effective March 1, 2009, it is freezing its defined benefit plan and, effective January 1, 2009, it will end matching contributions to its 401(k) plan. Motorola also announced that its co-CEOs will take a 25% decrease in base salary in 2009, and that one CEO [...]

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I’ve been blogging recently about defined benefit plans providing a more secure retirement than defined contribution plans, such as 401(k) plans. With Congress again discussing how to amend the tax code to provide a portable individual retirement plan for employees whose employer does not offer a plan, the relevant question is whether that plan [...]

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A few years ago, there was a lot of buzz about Congress creating some type of defined contribution plan for employees whose employer did not sponsor a plan. The idea was that if the employer was not sponsoring a qualified plan, the employee could create their own plan and contribute to their retirement accounts [...]

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One impact of Congress’ failure so far to pass any version of the Pension Protection Technical Corrections Act is that defined benefit plans have been forced to operate while awaiting guidance. Earlier this year, the IRS issued transitional relief in Notice 2008-21. Today, the IRS issued Notice 2008-73 which expands that transitional relief. [...]

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The effective dates for the Code section 430 regulations are an interesting mix.
Congress made new Code section 430 effective to plan years beginning after December 31, 2007. With the Pension Protection Act being enacted into law on August 17, 2006, implementing regulations to encompass the changes made by Code section 430 by December 31, [...]

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When Congress created new Code section 430 in Section 112 the Pension Protection Act in 2006, the impact of this new Code section was not immediately clear. The IRS has now provided a clear statement on their belief of the impact of new Code section 430 with the latest installment of proposed regulations for [...]

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Common language contained somewhere in most qualified plan documents is the definition of spouse. Within that definition can be the requirement that a participant must be married for a period of one year before the spouse is recognized by the plan as the participant’s spouse. In a recent case from the 5th Circuit [...]

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The U.S. Supreme Court has denied Rohm & Haas’ petition for writ of certiorari. On theOrder List for March 17th, the Court stated:

“07-906 ROHM AND HAAS PENSION V. WILLIAMS, GARY
The motion of Chamber of Commerce of the United States of
America for leave to file a brief as amicus curiae is granted.
The motion of National [...]

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