Excerpt: Private Letter Ruling 200452039 discussed the situation of a plan that provided a 3% cost-of-living adjustment to the benefits of each retired participant each year, beginning on the January 1 following the third anniversary of the participant's retirement date. The private letter ruling held, in effect, that a participant whose annual benefit beginning in 2005 was $170,000 per year, subject to a cost of living increase starting in January 2009, would be in violation of the limit.