The Internal Revenue Service has broadened the filing and payment relief provided under prior guidance. IRS Notice 2020-23 postpones, among other relief, the due date for employee benefit plans required to make the Form 5500 series filings due on or after April 1, 2020, and before July 15, 2020. Plans with original due dates or
2nd Circuit Pension Liability Ruling Is A Big Win For Employers
As published by Law360 (January 13, 2020, 5:43 PM EST) —
Following oral arguments that were held in February 2018, in a long-anticipated decision in the National Retirement Fund v. Metz Culinary Management Inc., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that a multiemployer pension fund’s use of a lower interest rate…
PBGC Approves Revisions to AAA’s Withdrawal Liability Arbitration Rules; Employer Fees Reduced
For years, steep arbitration fees have made many employers think twice about contesting a questionable withdrawal liability determination. The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation’s (PBGC) approval of a lower fee schedule may ease that hurdle.
ERISA, as amended by the Multiemployer Pension Plan Amendment Act of 1980 (MPPAA), requires all disputes between an employer and a…
The Saga Continues for Multi-Employer Pension Funds
This is another blog on our monitoring the status of defined benefit multi-employer pension funds. Since this author last wrote to you, it has been revealed that the Central States Pension Fund is scheduled to become insolvent sometime in 2025. Worse yet, it has been announced that the multi-employer fund of the Pension Benefit Guaranty…
CONGRESS AGAIN ATTEMPTS TO ADDRESS MULTIEMPLOYER PLAN CRISIS IN BIPARTISAN BUDGET ACT
Under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”), as amended by the Multiemployer Pension Plan Amendments Act (“MPPAA”), an employer that has assumed an obligation to contribute to collectively-bargained and jointly-administered defined benefit pension plans ( “multiemployer plans”) is liable for its allocable share of any underfunding upon the permanent cessation of that obligation. This…
Church Plan Cases: Federal Agencies Finally Speak
As many of you know, currently pending before the Supreme Court are consolidated cases from the Third, Seventh, and Ninth Circuits holding that, for religiously affiliated employers, employee benefits plans must initially be established by a church for the plans to be exempt from ERISA as “church plans.” The circuit courts issued these holdings when,…
The Continuing Downward Spiral of the Multi-Employer Pension Plan
We have been monitoring and reporting on several disquieting events which have occurred in the multi-employer pension plan world within the past few months.
In September 2015, the Central States Southeast and Southwest Area Pension Fund availed itself of the relief permitted under the Kline-Miller Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 (“Kline-Miller Act”) by applying…
New Regulatory Guidance Issued on Plan Benefit Suspensions and Plan Partitions for Multiemployer Pension Plans at Risk of Insolvency
As part of on-going efforts to prevent the collapse of financially troubled multiemployer pension plans, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (“PBGC”) and Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) have issued regulatory guidance under the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 (“MPRA”). Together, the Treasury Proposed and Temporary Regulations, a new Revenue Ruling, and PBGC interim rule…