Pension Protection Act Blog

Last night, Congress adjoined without acting on H.R. 3361, the House of Representative’s version of the Pension Protection Technical Corrections Act of 2007. The Senate passed S. 1974, the Senate version of the Pension Protection Technical Corrections Act of 2007. The House could still pass their version of the bill after the holiday […]

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For plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2008, the Pension Protection Act amended Code section 417(e)(3), changing the applicable interest rate and applicable mortality table. For single employer defined benefit plans terminating before January 1, 2008, this change created a potential lump sum valuation issue because a plan could be terminated before […]

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The IRS released Notice 2007-81, which provides guidance on the corporate bond yield curve and the segment rates required to compute the funding target and other items under Code section 430. This notice implements changes made by sections 101, 102, 111, 112, and 302 of the Pension Protection Act.
Even though it is only 9 […]

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ASPPA announced on Friday that Treasury officials informed Congress yesterday that they will enforce the new PPA combined plan deduction limits under Internal Revenue Code section 404(a)(7) in accordance with the language in the proposed PPA technical correction legislation (H.R. 3361/S.1974). Q&A 9 of Notice 2007-28 will not be enforced and, in a defined […]

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In a cautionary tale about how plan documents can be written too carefully, the 7th Circuit this week, in Williams v. Rohm and Haas Pension Plan, __ F.3d __ (S.D. Indiana) (Aug. 14, 2007), affirmed both the district court’s decision to grant of class certification, and to grant summary judgment, to the participant.
The participant was […]

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Some days, every question can be answered by applying the examples contained within the Treasury regulations. Today, the question involved a participant in a terminating defined benefit plan who has been married for six months and wants to take a lump sum distribution without notifying his wife, much less obtaining her consent. The […]

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Dow Chemical announced that, starting in 2008, new eligible salaried employees will be enrolled in the company’s new cash balance plan instead of their existing traditional defined benefit plan. The new plan is named their Personal Pension Account.
A traditional defined benefit plan provides participants with a specific retirement benefit for life calculated using the […]

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The IRS announced they will stop accepting applications for opinion/advisory letters for prototypes and volume submitter defined benefit plans not restated for EGTRRA and the 2006 Cumulative List as of September 7, 2007. In Announcement 2007-61, the IRS provides three final time frames for GUST.
Before Feb. 1, 2007 - applications for opinion/advisory letters for […]

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Later this year, the IRS is expected to release guidance on including health benefits in defined benefit plans. From a public policy standpoint, this is potentially a good thing for participants. Imagine if a defined benefit plan offered pre- and post-retirement health insurance benefits. AARP has said that one of the major […]

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