PBGC Final Rule on Valuation Assumptions and Methods for Single-Employer Pension Plans
Published June 05, 2024
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) released a final rule to update the interest, mortality, and expense assumptions used to determine the present value of benefits for a single-employer pension plan under subpart B of the PBGC's regulation on Allocation of Assets in Single-Employer Plans, to determine components of mass withdrawal liability for a multiemployer pension plan, and for other purposes. Except for some technical and editorial changes, the final rule is substantially the same as the proposed rule published on August 17, 2023.
Major provisions of the final rule would:
- Modernize the interest assumption structure by adopting a yield curve approach;
- Enable the use of market interest rates as of the date of liability measurement (i.e., the valuation date) as the basis for the interest assumption;
- Increase transparency by using a procedure based on publicly available yield curves as of the valuation date;
- Adopt a more recent mortality table along with a generational mortality improvement projection;
- Simplify the expense assumption.
The amendments from the final rule apply to calculations where the valuation date is on or after July 31, 2024.
The final rule is effective July 8, 2024.
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