On August 3, 2006, Congress sent much-anticipated pension reform legislation to President Bush for signature. President Bush signed the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (the "PPA") on August 17, 2006. Some have called the PPA the most sweeping piece of pension legislation since the enactment of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act in 1974 ("ERISA").
This edition of the Benefits Review newsletter is devoted exclusively to summarizing the major changes made by the PPA. Because of the length of the PPA (almost 1,000 pages), not all changes are discussed in this newsletter. In addition, even for those changes that are described, many of the more technical aspects of the new rules have been omitted.
While some changes made by the PPA will be effective as soon as the act is signed, and a fair number of changes will take effect in 2007, the majority of the changes do not take effect until 2008. If a particular provision takes effect prior to 2008, we have generally noted that in the summary.
In the weeks and months ahead, we will alert our employee benefit clients to any specific actions that are required as the result of the passage of the PPA. In the meantime, if you have any questions regarding the information contained in this newsletter, please do not hesitate to call any member of the Ford & Harrison Employee Benefits Group.
On August 3, 2006, Congress sent much-anticipated pension reform legislation to President Bush for signature. President Bush signed the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (the "PPA") on August 17, 2006. Some have called the PPA the most sweeping piece of pension legislation since the enactment of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act in 1974 ("ERISA").
This edition of the Benefits Review newsletter is devoted exclusively to summarizing the major changes made by the PPA. Because of the length of the PPA (almost 1,000 pages), not all changes are discussed in this newsletter. In addition, even for those changes that are described, many of the more technical aspects of the new rules have been omitted.
While some changes made by the PPA will be effective as soon as the act is signed, and a fair number of changes will take effect in 2007, the majority of the changes do not take effect until 2008. If a particular provision takes effect prior to 2008, we have generally noted that in the summary.
In the weeks and months ahead, we will alert our employee benefit clients to any specific actions that are required as the result of the passage of the PPA. In the meantime, if you have any questions regarding the information contained in this newsletter, please do not hesitate to call any member of the Ford & Harrison Employee Benefits Group.