PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Multiemployer Plans
On April 24, 2025, the Seventh Circuit upheld a Northern District of Illinois decision requiring a multiemployer pension plan to exclude the employers’ post-2014 rehabilitation plan contribution rate increases from the...more
In Central States, Se. & W. Areas Pension Fund v. Laguna Dairy, S. de R.L. de C.V., No. 23-3206 (3d Cir. 2025 Mar. 27, 2025), the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (“Third Circuit”) reversed the district...more
The Department of Labor (DOL) issued guidance earlier this month that will affect defined benefit plans’ annual funding notices. The annual funding notice requirements were amended by SECURE 2.0 and are effective for plan...more
A recent case from the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, Local No. 499, Board of Trustees of Shopmen's Pension Plan v. Art Iron, Inc., et al., 177 F. 4th 923 (6th Cir. 2024), clarifies a significant legal...more
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) insures most private sector (i.e., non-governmental) defined benefit pension plans. The Plan Administrator of each pension plan covered under ERISA is required to annually file...more
A bankruptcy court in Delaware recently upheld rules issued by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) that severely impact how liability is calculated for employers withdrawing from multiemployer pension plans...more
“Withdrawal liability” blindsides many employers when they stop contributing to collectively bargained pension plans. Multiemployer plans have used different calculations for years that inflate the withdrawal liability they...more
A recent ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit serves provides a valuable reminder for multiemployer pension funds and contributing employers regarding ERISA’s withdrawal liability notice and demand...more
On March 29, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois issued its decision in Central States, Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Fund v. Event Media, Inc. In a matter of first impression for...more
Last Friday, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reversed a district court’s decision upholding an arbitration award requiring an employer to pay more than $2.3 million in...more
Recent headlines involving the Central States Teamsters Pension Fund and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation’s (PBGC) Special Financial Assistance (SFA) Program highlights an issue with meaningful consequences for...more
Andrew Graw, Taryn Cannataro, and Jessica Kriegsfield of Lowenstein Sandler's Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Practice Group address multi-employer pension plans in the context of a business transaction,...more
In January 2022, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) changed the withholding election rules applicable to distributions from pension plans (a term that includes 401(k) plans, money purchase pension plans and defined benefit...more
On July 7, 2023, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama issued a ruling in Perfection Bakeries Inc. v. Retail Wholesale & Dep’t Store Int’l Union & Indus. Pension Fund, ordering Perfection Bakery, Inc....more
On April 25, 2023 the Department of Labor (“DOL”) published Field Assistance Bulletin 2023-01 (the “FAB”), which provides guidance to multiemployer pension plans that receive Special Financial Assistance (“SFA”) regarding the...more
The 7th edition of our SECURE 2.0 webinar series will focus on the bill’s provisions that cover investments, PEPs, pension risk transfers, disclosures, and a number of other topics that are relevant to fiduciaries....more
Seyfarth Synopsis: The billions of taxpayer dollars now flowing out to financially troubled multiemployer plans is good news for those plans, their contributing employers, and plan participants. That said, it is not a “get...more
Christmas came early this year for the beleaguered Teamsters Central States Pension Fund and its over 350,000 participants – but employers may soon realize they just received a lump of coal in their stockings. On December 8,...more
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently affirmed in part and reversed in part a district court’s order confirming an arbitration award under the Multiemployer Pension Plan Amendments Act of 1980 (the “MPPAA”), noting in...more
Early this morning the White House announced that $36 billion was being allocated from the American Rescue Plan (i.e., the 2021 Coronavirus relief package) to shore up the Teamster’s Central States Pension Plan....more
This week, the Court explains the limits of the Declaratory Judgment Act and employers’ liability for withdrawal from multiemployer pension plans. The Court holds that the Declaratory Judgment Act does not authorize a...more
On October 14, 2022 the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (“PBGC”) published a proposed regulation regarding the interest rates that multiemployer pension plan actuaries use when calculating the present value of plans’...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: On October 14, 2022, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (“PBGC”) published its proposed rule under ERISA Section 4213 (the “Proposed Rule”), which sets forth for the first time the agency’s guidance...more
In an apparent effort to resolve uncertainty caused by court rulings, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation has proposed that actuaries of multiemployer pension plans should be allowed to use any interest rate for...more
In a prior alert, we detailed how the Interim Final Rule (IFR) from the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) regarding the special financial assistance (SFA) provided under American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) would...more