PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Multiemployer Plans
Just before its summer recess, the Supreme Court agreed to review whether multiemployer pension funds can impose withdrawal liability based on actuarial assumptions adopted after the relevant plan year. The expected decision...more
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
Even as high-priority issues such as diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), immigration, and Ukraine take center stage in the first months of the new presidential administration, many employers are wondering what the next...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
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 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 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
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
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
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