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Prepared by Mike Ewing, J.D.
Director of Research
United Actuarial Services, Inc.
(317) 580-8659
Fax (317) 580-8651
email: mewing@unitedactuarial.com
© United Actuarial Services, Inc. 2010
2010-45
June 20, 2010
Senate Passes Pension Relief Bill
Bill Goes To House for Passage
On Friday June 18, the Senate passed H.R. 3962, Preservation of Access to Care for
Medicare Beneficiaries and Pension Relief Act of 2010, which included some of the
multiemployer defined benefit plan pension relief that had been in the House
passed bill H.R. 4213. See Client Bulletin 2010-39 for more in H.R. 4213.
The Senate had been considering passage of H.R. 4213, but when a vote to stop
debate on the bill failed on a 56-40 vote,
thus
stalling pension relief, top
Democratic and Republican Senators agreed to add some of the pension relief
provisions of H.R. 4213 onto H.R. 3962 as time was of the essence to pass some
pension relief. The Senate then passed H.R. 3962 Friday under a procedure known
as unanimous consent. H.R. 3962 appears to include the only relief that was in
Section 311 of H.R. 4213, with some differences. H.R. 3962 is available by
“
H.R. 3962 contains parallel amendments to ERISA and the Code.
A copy of the
amendments to the Code is available by “clicking here.”
The multiemployer pension relief provisions are found at pages 62-74 of the bill.
The relief for multiemployer plans includes:
use of a separate 30-year amortization period for net investment losses
incurred in either or both of the first two plan years ending after August 31,
2008;
use of an extended smoothing period for the difference between actual and
expected returns
for
either or both of the first two plan years ending after
August 31, 2008 over up to a 10-year period; and
use of a valuation corridor of between 80-130% of the fair market value of
plan assets either or both of the first two plan years beginning after
August 31, 2008.
CLIENT BULLETIN