PRT PBGC Guarantees
PDFIn a new white paper, nationally recognized Ivins, Phillips & Barker ERISA attorneys Kevin O’Brien and Spencer Walters argue that the PBGC’s disavowal of federal protection for retirees after pension risk transfers was never authorized by Congress and conflicts with both the statute and the PBGC’s own 1981 position. The authors trace the legal history, legislative intent, and policy implications demonstrating that the law already requires PBGC guarantees to continue even after pension benefits are annuitized. Their analysis calls on regulators and courts to restore this “forgotten promise” to strengthen the integrity of the U.S. pension system.
About the Authors
Kevin O’Brien has concentrated his practice in employee benefits and compensation for over 30 years. He is widely known as a leader in a wide variety of subjects, including innovative defined benefit plan design, flexible benefits, ERISA fiduciary matters and executive compensation. Before joining the firm, Kevin worked in the Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration at the Labor Department soon after ERISA was enacted. Kevin represents corporate clients before the Treasury Department, the Internal Revenue Service, the Labor Department, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and Congress on a variety of employee benefits issues. He was one of the founders of the Employers Council on Flexible Compensation (ECFC) and served as an officer of ECFC for many years. Kevin has been individually recognized by Chambers & Partners for Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation multiple times, most recently in 2025.
Spencer Walters practices all aspects of employee benefits and executive compensation law, including the development and maintenance of qualified and nonqualified plans; plan compliance with the Code, ERISA, and Affordable Care Act; the treatment of employee benefits plans in connection with corporate mergers and acquisitions; and executive employment agreements and compensation arrangements, including Code section 409A. Spencer enjoys working with in-house counsel, tax and payroll personnel, and human resources professionals to attend to day-to-day administrative challenges and respond to new challenges. Spencer also actively engages in the federal rulemaking process, offering key comments to proposed regulations including under Section 162(m) and Section 7508A. Spencer has been individually recognized by Chambers & Partners for Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation.
About Ivins, Phillips & Barker, Chtd.
Ivins, Phillips & Barker (IPB) is exclusively engaged in the practice of federal tax, benefits and compensation, and estate and gift tax law. Founded by two of the original judges on the United States Tax Court in 1935, our decades of focus on the intricacies of the Internal Revenue Code and Department of Labor regulations have led numerous Fortune 500 companies, as well as smaller companies, tax-exempt organizations, and high net worth individuals to rely on us for answers to their most complicated and sophisticated tax planning problems as well as for complex tax litigation.