Role of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation - a "Quasi" governmental corporation within the Department of Labor - supervises the defined benefit pension plan termination insurance program. It collects premiums levied on plan sponsors of covered single, multiple and multi-employer plans in relation to the number of plan participants. It is not a "real" insurance company as the premiums are not risk related, i.e., a large healthy firm must participate when it could either self-insure or purchase private insurance at a lower rate, but pays the same premium as a firm in a financially distressed industry. An employer experiencing financial difficulty may secure a waiver of its requirement to pay premiums. Funding rules do not prevent a sponsor from reducing funding levels before the plan terminates.