Background on current SFA reporting requirements

The PBGC’s ASOC instructions currently require SFA plans to file certain documents with the ASOC, including:

• Audited financial statements
• Actuarial valuation reports
• Account statements showing that SFA funds are kept separate
• Investment and custodian statements
• SFA investment allocation worksheets
• Zone certifications
• Updated cash-flow projections

We discussed the ASOC in our August 9, 2022 webinar, “SFA: Solvency Through 2051?” We also mentioned reporting requirements in our June 5, 2024 downloadable resource, “Your Plan Has Received SFA. What Happens Now?”

The proposal to require additional items

The PBGC’s proposal, which was published in the October 16, 2026 Federal Register, would revise instructions to the ASOC to add the following:

• Investment governance documents. SFA plans would be required to provide the most recent investment policy statement, investment guidelines, asset allocation policy, investment committee charter or any similar governing document. This covers documents used for all plan assets, including SFA assets.
• Trustee and committee minutes. Minutes of meetings where the trustees or a fiduciary committee discussed investment policy or investment-related service providers would have to be provided. Any investment reports reviewed at those meetings would also be required.

  SFA plans would be allowed to submit excerpts and redact privileged material, personally identifiable information and unrelated content.

  The submission must still show the meeting date, which fiduciary body met, the materials reviewed and any investment actions or votes. If no responsive meetings, minutes or written policies exist, the SFA plan would have to attach a statement saying so.

• Missing participants. The plan would have to provide data on missing participants as well as documentation of its procedures for finding them. “Missing participants” includes people with inaccurate or incomplete contact or census information, and people whose mail or email is returned as undeliverable.
• Criminal violations. The PBGC’s proposal would revise the wording for the question that asks whether any criminal violations affecting the plan have occurred.

Timeline for compliance

The proposal in the form of a Federal Register notice advises the public that the PBGC is requesting that the Office of Management Budget (OMB) approve the PBGC increasing the information that is currently required by the instructions to the ASOC.

The existing OMB approval for the PBGC’s collection of information expires on May 31, 2027. The PBGC’s proposal seeks that OMB extend the approval of the instructions (with the modifications) for the maximum permitted three-year extension.

Until OMB approves the modifications, the current ASOC instructions remain in effect, and the additional items are not required. The Federal Register notice does not indicate to which plan year the additional items would apply.