PBGC Requests Extended Approval of Information Collection with Modifications for Annual Reporting (Form 5500 Series); Comments Due December 5

Published November 03, 2022

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) issued a notice requesting that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) extend approval, with modifications, of a collection of information under the Paperwork Reduction Act, proposing modifications to the 2023 Schedule R (Retirement Plan Information) and to the 2023 Schedule SB (Single-Employer Defined Benefit Plan Actuarial Information), and to their related instructions.

Under Schedule R, PBGC proposes to:
  • Reconfigure categories for which defined benefit plans with 1,000 or more participants at the beginning of the plan year must provide a breakdown of plan assets by reporting the percent of assents in five categories of investments;
  • Modify the instructions to clarify how certain atypical investments should be categorized for certain investments;
  • Modify the instructions for line 19a so that the percentages reported reflect the asset allocation as of the end of the plan year instead of the beginning of the plan year;
  • Change line 19b (average duration for certain investments) and its instructions; and
  • Eliminate line 19c (method used to determine the duration reported in line 19b).

Under Schedule SB, PBGC proposes to:
  • Modify line 6 (Target Normal Cost) and its instructions, to address a possible, albeit unlikely, situation in which line 6c (Target Normal Cost) reported on Schedule SB would not be consistent with IRS regulation and statute if lines 6a and 6b were determined in accordance with the current line 6 instructions; and
  • Change the current instructions for the Schedule SB
    • 26b attachment (Schedule of Projection of Expected Benefit Payments), to provide that for a plan that has 1,000 or more participants as of the valuation date, in situations where a plan assumes some, or all, benefits are paid in a lump sum but uses the annuity substitution rule (26 CFR 1.430(d)-1(f)(4)(iii)(B)) to determine the funding target, the attachment may show projected benefits payable in the annuity form instead of in the form assumed for valuation purposes, as indicated in the current instructions; and
    • Line 26a of Schedule SB currently provides that a plan reporting 1,000 or more active participants on line 3d, column (1), must also provide average compensation data. The instruction is incorrect because line 3d is where the total participant count is reported. PBGC is correcting this instruction to instead reference line 3c, column (1), the active participant count.

Comments are due December 5, 2022.