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
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
“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
With a multitude of questions surrounding implementation and administration, late on a summer Friday afternoon, the IRS issued Notice 2023-62 (Notice), providing Plan Sponsors with a transition period until 2026 to implement...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
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has proposed regulations to clarify the permissible uses of plan forfeitures in qualified retirement plans. This memo provides insight into: (1) types of benefit forfeitures permitted in...more
On February 24th, the Employee Benefits Security Administration, Internal Revenue Service, Treasury, and Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (together, “the Agencies”) released Final forms revisions and Final Rules related...more
The wide-ranging SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (“SECURE 2.0”) radically altered the retirement plan landscape, and is likely to create a significant number of action items for sponsors of retirement plans for tax-exempt entities and...more
The SECURE Act 2.0 makes changes to the US employer retirement plan system with respect to both single employer plans and to “applicable collectively bargained plans.” Applicable collectively bargained plans are defined in...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
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
If your plan is with a very large plan provider, you may be contacted by a competing provider that the incumbent has been sued. What do I think? Not much. If you’re big enough as a company, you will likely have been sued in...more
On this episode of Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion, host Brydon DeWitt is joined by Zan Gormley, a partner in Williams Mullen’s Litigation Section, for a discussion about multiemployer plans. They address what they are,...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
Seyfarth Synopsis: On July 8, 2022, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (“PBGC”) published its final rule (“Final Rule”) on the Special Financial Assistance (“SFA”) Program established under the American Rescue Plan Act...more
On July 8, 2022, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (“PBGC”) published its much anticipated final rule on the special financial assistance (“SFA”) available to certain troubled multiemployer plans under the American...more
The House of Representatives recently passed The Securing a Strong Retirement Act of 2022 (H.R. 2954), also known as the “Secure Act 2.0,” which would expand and encourage retirement savings by an overwhelming vote of 414-5....more
2022 INFLATION-ADJUSTED PENALTIES ANNOUNCED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR - The Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 2015 directs the US Department of Labor (DOL) to make annual inflation adjustments to...more