On August 14, 2025, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) published a final rule designed to correct, clarify, and streamline several of its regulations for certain single-employer and multiemployer defined benefit (DB) plans. The final rule also incorporates certain changes from the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (SECURE Act) already reflected in PBGC guidance. This Benefits Alert highlights some of the changes in the final rule.
Unless otherwise noted, the changes take effect on September 15, 2025.
Final PBGC premium due date for terminated single-employer plans
Under PBGC’s single-employer plan termination rules, a plan administrator must file PBGC Form 501 (Post-Distribution Certification) within 30 days of the final benefit distribution—or within 60 days of that date if the PBGC is notified within the first 30 days that all assets were distributed. A 90-day, penalty-free grace period applies, as explained below.
Prior to this new final rule, a plan’s final premium filing was due on the earlier of (1) the normal premium due date (the 15th day of the 10th month after the plan year begins) or (2) the date Form 501 is filed. Because filing both items on the same day has been administratively challenging and has led to missed deadlines and penalties, PBGC is now amending the regulations so that the final premium filing is due on the earlier of (1) the normal premium due date or (2) 45 days after Form 501 is filed.
Effective date: This new provision applies to plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2026.
Due date for the standard termination notice for single-employer plans
In a standard plan termination, the plan administrator must submit PBGC Form 500 (Standard Termination Notice) no later than 180 days after the proposed termination date. The proposed termination date—shown on Form 500—cannot be later than 90 days after the earliest date the notice of intent to terminate (NOIT) was issued to any participants or other affected parties.
The final rule notes situations in which a plan administrator does not specify a proposed termination date in the NOIT and/or does not file Form 500, which leads to an undetermined due date for Form 500. To address this scenario, PBGC amended the regulations to clarify that the due date for Form 500 is the earlier of (1) 180 days after the proposed termination date stated on the form or (2) 60 days before any benefit distributions are made under the plan termination. PBGC may impose penalties if the form is not filed by this deadline.
Plan administrators that timely file Form 500 are provided with a 90-day, penalty-free grace period for a late Form 501 (Post-Distribution Certification). PBGC has revised the regulations so that the 90-day, penalty-free grace period applies only when the plan administrator filed Form 500 within 180 days of the proposed termination date.
Required electronic filings
PBGC is revising its regulations to make electronic submission mandatory—via email or, where available, the PBGC e-Filing Portal—for standard termination filings, missing participant filings, and coverage-determination forms. Previously, electronic filing was optional.
Technical changes related to the SECURE Act
Variable-rate premium for Cooperative and Small Employer Charity (CSEC) plans. Section 206 of the SECURE Act changed how CSEC plans calculate PBGC premiums starting in 2019. The flat-rate premium is $19 per participant, which is not indexed for inflation. The variable-rate premium is 0.9% of the plan’s unfunded vested benefits (UVB), which is calculated using the same discount rate and mortality table used to calculate the plan’s funding liability under ERISA § 306(j)(5)(C). Although PBGC has already reflected these rules in guidance and filing instructions, it is now formally amending its premium-rate regulations.
Variable-rate premiums for community newspaper plans. Section 115 of the SECURE Act allowed community newspaper plans to adopt alternative minimum funding standards, but it did not extend this alternative option to PBGC premiums. As a result, these plans must calculate PBGC variable-rate premiums using the standard premium funding target. To clarify this, PBGC is amending the regulations to categorize these plans as having special funding rules that are disregarded when determining UVB for premium purposes.
Definition of new plan for PBGC premium purposes. Prior to the SECURE Act, a plan was considered new for premium payment purposes only if it first came into existence during the premium payment year. Section 201 of the SECURE Act provided that if an employer set up a new pension plan after the taxable year ended but before the employer’s tax-return deadline (including any extensions), the employer could elect to treat the new plan as if it had been adopted during the prior taxable year. To address plans that take effect retroactively, PBGC has amended its regulations to define a new plan as one whose effective date falls within the premium payment year.
ERISA 4010 filings for single-employer plans
An ERISA 4010 filing is an annual report to PBGC that is required for certain significantly underfunded single-employer DB plans to provide specified actuarial and financial information about the plans and employers in the plan sponsor’s controlled group.
PBGC is revising the 4010 regulations so that the details of how an enrolled actuary must certify the actuarial data in an annual 4010 filing are no longer fixed in the regulation. Instead, the information that must be provided and how it must be submitted will be outlined in PBGC’s filing instructions, giving the agency flexibility to accept electronic certifications or other formats in the future without further rulemaking.
PBGC expense load
On June 6, 2024, PBGC published a final rule that updated certain assumptions used by single-employer plans terminating in a distress or involuntary termination and multiemployer plans for withdrawal liability calculations. One update was to simplify the expense load, which was set at $400 per participant for the first 100 participants and $250 for each additional participant, with the total amount (rather than the per-participant figures) indexed for inflation. PBGC has amended the regulation so that the $400 and $250 per-participant rates will be indexed and rounded before calculating the overall expense load. This aligns with the agency’s other indexing practices and will allow PBGC to post the indexed amounts on its website.
Effective date: The change to the rounding methodology applies to valuation dates on or after January 31, 2026.
Withdrawal liability disclosures for certain multiemployer plans
PBGC regulations require multiemployer plans that “terminated by mass withdrawal, plans terminated by amendment that are expected to become insolvent, and insolvent plans receiving financial assistance from PBGC (whether terminated or not terminated) file withdrawal liability information … including information about withdrawal liability payments and settlements, and whether employers have withdrawn from the plan but have not yet been assessed withdrawal liability.” PBGC has used this information to estimate the agency’s financial statement liabilities but determined that this information is no longer needed. As a result, PBGC is removing this reporting requirement.
Please contact your Milliman consultant with any questions about how these changes may affect your plan(s).