[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 245 (Friday, December 20, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 77171-77172]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-30341]


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PENSION BENEFIT GUARANTY CORPORATION


Submission of Information Collection for OMB Review; Comment 
Request; Termination of Single-Employer Plans, Missing Participants

AGENCY: Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.

ACTION: Notice of request for extension of OMB approval, with 
modifications.

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SUMMARY: The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) is requesting 
that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), under the Paperwork 
Reduction Act, extend approval, with modifications, of a collection of 
information in its regulations on Termination of Single Employer Plans 
and Missing Participants, and implementing forms and instructions (OMB 
control number 1212-0036, expires December 31, 2013). This notice 
informs the public of PBGC's request and solicits public comment on the 
collection of information.

DATES: Comments should be submitted by January 21, 2014.

ADDRESSES: Comments should be sent to the Office of Information and 
Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, Attention: Desk 
Officer for Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, via electronic mail 
at [email protected] or by fax to (202) 395-6974.
    A copy of the request (including the collection of information) is 
posted at http://www.pbgc.gov/res/laws-andregulations/information-collections under-omb-review.html. It may also be obtained without 
charge by writing to the Disclosure Division of the Office of the 
General Counsel of PBGC at the above address, visiting the Disclosure 
Division, faxing a request to 202-326-4042, or calling 202-326-4040 
during normal business hours. (TTY and TDD users may call the Federal 
relay service toll-free at 1-800-877-8339 and ask to be connected to 
202-326-4040.) The Disclosure Division will email, fax, or mail the 
request to you, as you request.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jo Amato Burns, Attorney (326-4400, 
ext. 3072) or Catherine B. Klion, Assistant General Counsel (326-4400, 
ext. 3041), Office of the General Counsel, Pension Benefit Guaranty 
Corporation, 1200 K Street NW., Washington, DC 20005, 202-326-4400 (TTY 
and TDD users may call the Federal relay service toll-free at 1-800-
877-8339 and ask to be connected to 202-326-4400.)

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under section 4041 of the Employee 
Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (ERISA), a single-
employer pension plan may terminate voluntarily only if it satisfies 
the requirements for either a standard or a distress termination. 
Pursuant to ERISA section 4041(b), for standard terminations, and 
section 4041(c), for distress terminations, and PBGC's termination 
regulation (29 CFR part 4041), a plan administrator wishing to 
terminate a plan is required to submit specified information to PBGC in 
support of the proposed termination and to provide specified 
information regarding the proposed termination to third parties 
(participants, beneficiaries, alternate payees, and employee 
organizations). In the case of a plan with participants or 
beneficiaries who cannot be located when their benefits are to be 
distributed, the plan administrator is subject to the requirements of 
ERISA section 4050 and PBGC's missing participants regulation (29 CFR 
part 4050). These regulations may be found on PBGC's Web site at http://www.pbgc.gov/res/laws-and-regulations/code-of-federal-regulations.html.
    The collection of information under these regulations and the 
implementing forms and instructions has been

[[Page 77172]]

approved by OMB under control number 1212-0036 (expires December 31, 
2013). PBGC is requesting that OMB extend its approval for three years, 
with modifications. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person 
is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it 
displays a currently valid OMB control number.
    The modifications include a new requirement that plan 
administrators of plans terminating in a standard termination attach 
copies of the Notice of Intent to Terminate and sample Notices of Plan 
Benefits to the Standard Termination Notice (Form 500) filed with PBGC. 
PBGC is reorganizing the distress termination forms and instructions, 
including removing information items that PBGC no longer needs or can 
gather in other ways, adding a few information items that PBGC 
typically has been requesting as additional information under 29 CFR 
4041.45(c), and moving some information items from one form to another. 
PBGC is also making clarifying, simplifying, editorial, and other 
changes to the current standard termination, distress termination, and 
missing participants forms and instructions.
    PBGC estimates that 1,430 plan administrators will be subject to 
the collection of information requirements in PBGC's regulations on 
termination and missing participants and implementing forms and 
instructions each year, and that the total annual burden of complying 
with these requirements is 1,667 hours and $2,761,200.

    Issued in Washington, DC, this 16th day of December 2013.
Judith Starr,
General Counsel, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.
[FR Doc. 2013-30341 Filed 12-19-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7709-02-P