Minimum Funding Standard

In a white paper and technical explanations, Republican Senators Charles E. Grassley (Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance) and Lamar Alexander (Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions) have proposed reforms to the multiemployer pension plan system.

If implemented, the proposed reforms (not yet introduced as a bill) would

Welcome relief may be in store for employers that are facing significant minimum funding obligations to their defined benefit retirement plans. The Senate, on March 14, 2012, passed with strong bipartisan support a surface transportation reauthorization bill called the “Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21) Act” (S. 1813), which includes

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued an Exposure Draft (the “Draft”) September 1, 2010, proposing changes to U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (“GAAP”), which, if adopted, would require participating employers in multiemployer pension plans to disclose in their financial statements additional information concerning their obligations to such plans. The Draft would apply to public companies for fiscal years ending after December 15, 2010 and to non-public companies exactly one year later.
Continue Reading FASB Draft Would Require Additional Financial Statement Disclosure of Liabilities of Multiemployer Plans

The Pension Protection Act of 2006 (“PPA”) created certain funding classifications for multiemployer pension plans. Seriously underfunded plans are classified as either “critical” (“red zone”) or endangered (“yellow zone”). Plans that fall in between these two levels are considered “seriously endangered” (“orange zone”) plans. Such plans must send participating employers a notice about the plan’s