[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 87 (Thursday, May 7, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 21403-21405]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-10640]


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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Office of the Secretary


Submission for OMB Review: Comment Request

May 1, 2009.
    The Department of Labor (DOL) hereby announces the submission of 
the following public information collection requests (ICR) to the 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval in 
accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-13, 44 
U.S.C. chapter 35). A copy of each ICR, with applicable supporting 
documentation, including among other things a description of the likely 
respondents, proposed frequency of response, and estimated total burden 
may be obtained from the RegInfo.gov Web site at http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain or by contacting Darrin King on 202-
693-4129 (this is not a toll-free number)/e-mail: [email protected].
    Interested parties are encouraged to send comments to the Office of 
Information and Regulatory Affairs, Attn: OMB Desk Officer for the 
Department of Labor--Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), 
Office of Management and Budget, Room 10235, Washington, DC

[[Page 21404]]

20503, Telephone: 202-395-7316/Fax: 202-395-6974 (these are not toll-
free numbers), e-mail: [email protected] within 30 days from 
the date of this publication in the Federal Register. In order to 
ensure the appropriate consideration, comments should reference the OMB 
Control Number (see below).
    The OMB is particularly interested in comments which:
     Evaluate whether the proposed collection of information is 
necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency, 
including whether the information will have practical utility;
     Evaluate the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the 
burden of the proposed collection of information, including the 
validity of the methodology and assumptions used;
     Enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the 
information to be collected; and
     Minimize the burden of the collection of information on 
those who are to respond, including through the use of appropriate 
automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection 
techniques or other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting 
electronic submission of responses.
    Agency: Employee Benefits Security Administration.
    Type of Review: Extension without change of a currently approved 
collection.
    Title of Collection: ERISA Procedure 76-1; Advisory Opinion 
Procedure.
    OMB Control Number: 1210-0066.
    Affected Public: Businesses or other for-profits.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 63.
    Total Estimated Annual Burden Hours: 652.
    Total Estimated Annual Costs Burden (excludes hourly wage costs): 
$1,425,229.
    Description: Information collection provisions of Employee 
Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) Procedure 76-1 are used 
by persons supplying information needed for the Department to respond 
to their request for an interpretation as to the applicability of ERISA 
to a specific set of facts and circumstances. The Department's 
responses to such requests are called ``information letters'' and 
``advisory opinions.''
    Agency: Employee Benefits Security Administration.
    Type of Review: Extension without change of a currently approved 
collection.
    Title of Collection: Disclosures for Participant Directed 
Individual Account Plans Under ERISA Section 404(c).
    OMB Control Number: 1210-0090.
    Affected Public: Businesses or other for-profits.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 296,000.
    Total Estimated Annual Burden Hours: 1,316,000.
    Total Estimated Annual Costs Burden (excludes hourly wage costs): 
$63,070,000.
    Description: Section 404(c) of the Employee Retirement Income 
Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) (29 U.S.C. 1104(c)) provides that, if an 
individual account pension plan permits a participant or beneficiary to 
exercise control over assets in his or her account and the participant 
or beneficiary in fact exercises such control (as determined under 
regulations of the Department of Labor), the participant or beneficiary 
shall not be deemed to be a fiduciary by such exercise of control and 
no person otherwise a fiduciary to the plan shall be liable for any 
loss or breach that results solely from this exercise of control. For 
additional information, see related notice published at Vol. 74 FR 4980 
on January 28, 2009.
    The Department of Labor's regulation under section 404(c), codified 
at 29 CFR 2550.404c-1, describes the circumstances in which a 
participant or beneficiary in an individual account plan is considered 
to have exercised control over the assets in his or her individual 
account so as to relieve a fiduciary to the plan of liability relating 
to the exercise of control. The regulation specifies the manner in 
which an individual account pension plan must operate in allowing 
participants or beneficiaries to allocate individual account assets 
among available investment alternatives, such that section 404(c) will 
limit the plan fiduciary's liability for the investment decision. The 
regulation provides, inter alia, that participants and beneficiaries 
must have adequate information on which to base investment decisions. 
The regulation specifies the information that a plan must make 
available before a participant first makes investment decisions; when 
that information changes, for example when the available investment 
options under the plan change; and also upon the participant's and 
beneficiary's request. These information collection provisions are 
necessary to ensure that participants and beneficiaries are adequately 
informed about investment alternatives available under the plan, their 
rights, and the consequences of their investment decisions. Such 
information is important in assisting participants and beneficiaries in 
understanding their investment risks and achieving their retirement 
savings goals. For additional information, see related notice published 
at Vol. 74 FR 4981 on January 28, 2009.
    Agency: Employee Benefits Security Administration.
    Type of Review: Extension without change of a currently approved 
collection.
    Title of Collection: Settlement Agreements between a Plan and Party 
in Interest.
    OMB Control Number: 1210-0091.
    Affected Public: Businesses or other for-profits.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 4.
    Total Estimated Annual Burden Hours: 28.
    Total Estimated Annual Costs Burden (excludes hourly wage costs): 
$315.
    Description: Section 408(a) of the Employee Retirement Income 
Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and section 4975(c)(2) of the Internal 
Revenue Code of 1986 (the Code) give the Secretary of Labor the 
authority to grant an exemption to a class or order of fiduciaries, 
disqualified persons, or transactions from all or part of the 
restrictions imposed by sections 406 and 407(a) of ERISA and from the 
taxes imposed by sections 4975(a) and (b) of the Code, by reason of 
section 4975(c)(1) of the Code.
    This information collection request (ICR) relates to two prohibited 
transaction class exemptions (PTEs) that the Department of Labor (the 
Department) has granted, both of which involve settlement agreements. 
These two exemptions are described below:
    PTE 94-71. Granted on September 30, 1994, PTE 94-71 exempts from 
certain restrictions of ERISA and certain taxes imposed by the Code, a 
transaction or activity that is authorized, prior to the execution of 
the transaction or activity, by a settlement agreement resulting from 
an investigation of an employee benefit plan conducted by the 
Department. The following information collections are among the 
conditions for the exemption:
     Written Notice. A party engaging in a settlement agreement 
arising out of a Department investigation must provide written notice 
to the affected participants and beneficiaries of the plan. The notice 
must contain an objective description of the transaction or activity, 
the approximate date on which the transaction will occur, the address 
of the regional or district office of the Department that negotiated 
the settlement agreement, and a statement informing participants and 
beneficiaries

[[Page 21405]]

of their right to forward their comments to such office.
     Pre-Approval. A copy of the notice and a description of 
the method by which it will be distributed must be approved in advance 
by the regional or district office of the Department that negotiated 
the settlement.
    PTE 03-39. Granted on December 31, 2005, PTE 03-39 exempts from 
certain restrictions of ERISA and certain taxes imposed by the Code, 
transactions arising out of the settlement of litigation that involve 
the release of claims against parties in interest in exchange for 
payment by or on behalf of the party in interest, provided that certain 
conditions are met, including the following information collections:
     Written Agreement. The terms of the settlement must be 
specifically described in a written agreement or consent decree. 
Because it is usual and customary business practice to reduce the terms 
of a settlement agreement to writing, there is no additional burden 
associated with this requirement.
     Acknowledgement by Fiduciary. The fiduciary acting on 
behalf of the plan must acknowledge in writing that s/he is a fiduciary 
with respect to the settlement of the litigation. It is anticipated 
that this acknowledgement will be included in the written investment 
management or trustee agreement outlining the terms and conditions of 
the fiduciary's retention as a plan service provider. Therefore, no 
measurable burden is attached to this requirement.
    For additional information, see related notice published at Vol. 74 
FR 4977 on January 28, 2009.
    Agency: Employee Benefits Security Administration.
    Type of Review: Extension without change of a currently approved 
collection.
    Title of Collection: Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program.
    OMB Control Number: 1210-0118.
    Affected Public: Businesses or other for-profits.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 1,525.
    Total Estimated Annual Burden Hours: 6,863.
    Total Estimated Annual Costs Burden (excludes hourly wage costs): 
$273,403.
    Description: The Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program provides a 
method for voluntary correction of specified types of transactions that 
violate (or are suspected of violating) the prohibited transaction 
provisions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 and 
for securing the Department's assurance that it will take no further 
action with respect to the corrected transaction. For additional 
information, see related notice published at Vol. 74 FR 4979 on January 
28, 2009.
    Agency: Employee Benefits Security Administration.
    Type of Review: Extension without change of a currently approved 
collection.
    Title of Collection: Notice of Blackout Period Under ERISA.
    OMB Control Number: 1210-0122.
    Affected Public: Businesses or other for-profits.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 45,218.
    Total Estimated Annual Burden Hours: 183,342.
    Total Estimated Annual Costs Burden (excludes hourly wage costs): 
$1,628,760.
    Description: Public Law 107-204 amended section 101 of the Employee 
Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 to require plan administrators 
to furnish affected participants and beneficiaries of individual 
account pension plans with advance written notice of a ``blackout 
period'' during which their right to direct or diversify investments or 
obtain a loan or distributions, may be temporarily suspended. For 
additional information, see related notice published at Vol. 74 FR 4978 
on January 28, 2009.
    Agency: Employee Benefits Security Administration.
    Type of Review: Revision of currently approved collection.
    Title of Collection: Annual Funding Notice for Defined Benefit 
Pension Plans.
    OMB Control Number: 1210-0126.
    Affected Public: Businesses or other for-profits.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 30,458.
    Total Estimated Annual Burden Hours: 1,093,173.
    Total Estimated Annual Costs Burden (excludes hourly wage costs): 
$21,630,572.
    Description: Public Law 108-218 amended section 101(f) of the 
Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to require plan 
administrators of a defined benefit plan which is a multiemployer plan 
to each plan year furnish a plan funding notice to each plan 
participant and beneficiary, to each labor organization representing 
such participants or beneficiaries, to each employer that has an 
obligation to contribute under the plan, and to the Pension Benefit 
Guaranty Corporation.
    In August 2006, section 501(a) of the Pension Protection Act of 
2006 (PPA) expanded the annual notice requirement to single-employer 
defined benefit plans. Section 501(c) of the PPA directs the Department 
to publish a model of the notice required by section 101(f) of ERISA, 
as amended, not later than one year after the date of enactment of the 
PPA.
    Recently, concerns have been expressed about the imminent 
compliance date of the new annual funding notice requirements, the 
absence of regulatory guidance from the Department, and the cost and 
burdens attendant to annual funding notice compliance efforts prior to 
the adoption of annual funding notice regulations and the issuance of 
model annual funding notices by the Department. In recognition of the 
foregoing, on February 10, 2009, the Department issued a Field 
Assistance Bulletin 2009-1 (the FAB) concerning the disclosure 
requirements mandated by the PPA, which provides model notices. The FAB 
addresses the need for interim guidance pending the adoption of 
regulations or other guidance under section 101(f) of ERISA by 
providing that pending further guidance, the Department will, as a 
matter of enforcement policy, treat a plan administrator as satisfying 
the requirements of section 101(f), if the administrator complies with 
the guidance contained in the FAB (and appropriately uses a completed 
model notice) and has acted in accordance with a good faith, reasonable 
interpretation of those requirements with respect to matters not 
specifically addressed in the FAB.
    The Department is revising its information collection under OMB 
Control Number 1210-0126 to reflect the issuance of the FAB at this 
time. For additional information, see related notices published at Vol. 
73 FR 70676 on November 21, 2008 and 74 FR 7489 on February 17, 2009.

Darrin A. King,
Departmental Clearance Officer.
[FR Doc. E9-10640 Filed 5-6-09; 8:45 am]
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