Rev. Apr. 2025. "What's New: The form and the instructions have been updated to include additional information regarding Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs)."  MORE >>

Topics include: [1] Reportable Events Experience. [2] Standard Termination Audit Experience. [3] De-Risking. [4] Missing Participants Program Experience. [5] SFA Program. [6] Regulatory Agenda. [7] Premiums.  MORE >>

"PBGC staff reported that it received fewer reportable event notices in Fiscal Year 2023 (ending Sept. 30, 2023) than in any prior year ... PBGC staff addressed common errors detected in standard termination audits ... PBGC continues to receive Missing Participants Program filings at a steady pace.... PBGC has approved SFA payments to 72 plans in the amount of approximately $53.9 billion, and that there are currently 20 applications under review with requests totaling $14.3 billion."  MORE >>

"The DOL has provided some certainty for small plans: under a safe harbor, the deposit of deferrals within seven days will be considered timely ... Pension professionals who service large plans [those with 100 accounts or more] are put in a position to interpret 'earliest' and 'reasonably' as they apply to each client's circumstances.... Whether the plan sponsor and its service providers are enforcing a 3-day, 7-day, or some other version of 'My best should be good enough', remittances that are determined to be late must be corrected."  MORE >>

"[F]or plan sponsors seeking to correct delinquent payments to retirement plans, the new SCC program can only be used if lost earnings do not exceed $1,000 per payroll period and the delinquent payments have been remitted to the plan within 180 days. As such, large plans may not be able to benefit from using the SCC rather than a full VFCP application[.]"  MORE >>

"Corporate plan sponsors have increasingly turned to the pension risk transfer market to de-risk their plans, offloading the responsibility to pay for retiree benefits to an insurer. PRT volumes have never been higher. According to Aon, 2024 was another record year, with $51.8 billion in PRT volume across 785 transactions. Termination of a plan is still the ultimate end of most plans in surplus."  MORE >>

"This analysis looks at pension plan allocations by plan size, status and funding. It also examines the link between risk reduction and allocations and tracks trends over time."  MORE >>

"The package advanced by the committee [on April 30] calls for hiking the required pension contribution for federal employees to 4.4 percent of salary, while cutting a benefit for leaving the workforce before age 62."  MORE >>

"Nevada has joined Colorado's interstate alliance of state-facilitated auto-IRA programs designed to help private sector workers whose employers do not provide retirement plans save for retirement ... [T]he partnership now includes five states -- Colorado, Delaware, Maine, Nevada and Vermont -- representing nearly $130 million in assets under management, according to the release."  MORE >>

"[The authors] present a framework in which monthly benefits in 2033 would be capped at $2,050 (in 2024 dollars), an amount that would provide full scheduled benefits for roughly half of retirees; benefit reductions for the remaining, higher-income, half of retirees would be progressive. This framework would prevent any increase in the elderly poverty rate due to Social Security's insolvency and approximately 80 percent of beneficiaries would receive a smaller benefit reduction than had every retiree been subjected to an across-the-board cut.... Because [this] framework could be implemented under existing law, it also provides a reasonable starting point for negotiations over long-term Social Security reforms."  MORE >>

"When an EA vanishes suddenly it could be a nightmare for everyone, including the new EA.... The main lesson ... is not to be rushed no matter how many status-checking emails the TPA sends. Takeover plans take longer to get up to speed on and the more time you invest initially the less time you will need to spend later in possibly having to fix mistakes (some of which may be your own)."  MORE >>

"[I]ndividuals and businesses in parts of Virginia affected by severe winter storms and flooding that began on Feb. 10, 2025 ... now have until Nov. 3, 2025, to file various federal individual and business tax returns and make tax payments.... [I]ndividuals and households that reside or have a business in Amelia, Appomattox, Bedford, Bland, and Botetourt counties; the City of Bristol; and Buchanan, Buckingham, Campbell, Carroll, Charlotte, Craig, Cumberland, Dickenson, Floyd, Franklin, Giles, Grayson, Halifax, Lee, Lunenburg, Montgomery, Nottoway, Page, Pittsylvania, Powhatan, Prince Edward, Pulaski, Rockingham, Russell, Scott, Smyth, Tazewell, Washington, Wise, and Wythe Counties qualify for tax relief."  MORE >>

"Some of the largest tax expenditures found in the Internal Revenue Code provide tax-favored treatment for a variety of popular employee benefit programs. As such, reductions, caps or elimination of these provisions are often mentioned as potential revenue offset candidates to help pay for tax cuts in other areas."  MORE >>

"While many owners of privately held businesses ... want to encourage key employees to 'think like shareholders,' they are reluctant to (or simply cannot) grant true equity interests to key employees.... [T]he answer for those privately held businesses that do offer an LTIP is a 'phantom' or 'synthetic' equity arrangement such as a Phantom Stock or Stock Appreciation Rights Plan. While each of these plan structures has certain advantages in specific situations, EBS has found the Performance Units Plan (PUP) format to be most flexible and effective in encouraging key employees to think and act like shareholders."  MORE >>