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Continuing Clashes over Cash Balance Pension Plans

By Robert D. Webb
November 27, 2006

The fight over cash balance plans is proving to be one for the ages. A hybrid of defined contribution (DC) and defined benefit (DB) pension plans, cash balance plans have engendered both confusion and dispute over the appropriate framework for analyzing their compliance with applicable law. Two recent conflicting decisions issued by the same U.S. District Court in New York reveal a continuing absence of clarity about the plans' legality, despite support given in August by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in the Cooper v. IBM decision and by Congress in the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA).

This article reviews recent developments, focusing on features of cash balance plans that have proven problematic, and on the prospect for a solution under the PPA.

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