ERISA plans cannot terminate through merger
In Beck v. PACE Int'l Unionfound nothing in the text of ERISA or the legislative history to support a claim that Congress intended merger to be a permissible means of termination., the U.S. Supreme Court held that merger was not a permissible form of termination for single-employer defined benefit plans under ERISA. ERISA permits plan termination only the purchase of irrevocable commitments from an insurer or by providing all benefits under the plan. The Court overturned the Ninth Circuit’s ruling that the residual provision in 29 U.S.C. 1431(b)(3)(A)(ii), which would permit annuitization, should be construed to permit merger, as such interpretation would be contrary to the interpretation rendered by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation(PBGC). The Court has traditionally deferred to the PBGC. Moreover, applying simple rules of statutory construction, the Court
