PBGC Issues Filing Instructions for 2022 Plan Years

The Department of Labor’s Pension Benefits Guaranty Corporation (PBGC)—the agency that insures and has primary governance over defined benefit (DB) pension plans—has issued the 2022 plan year version of its Comprehensive Premium Filing Instructions. Payment of premiums for PBGC’s insuring of DB plan benefits is required under ERISA and PBGC regulations, and premium filings are required of covered DB plans each year. The instructions indicate that filing requirements are almost identical to 2021, but note the following changes.

• An increase in single-employer plan flat rate premiums to $88 per participant from $86 per participant
• An increase in single-employer plan variable rate premiums to $48 per $1,000 of unfunded vested benefits capped at $598 times the number of participants—up from $46 per $1,000 of unfunded vested benefits capped at $582 times the number of participants
• An increase in multiemployer plan flat rate premiums to $32 per participant from $31
• Instructions have been modified to clarify information reported with respect to plans adopted after the close of the plan year but before the employer’s filing due date pursuant to the SECURE Act