Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 120.djvu/1012

 PUBLIC LAW 109–280—AUG. 17, 2006

120 STAT. 981

TITLE VII—BENEFIT ACCRUAL STANDARDS SEC. 701. BENEFIT ACCRUAL STANDARDS.

(a) AMENDMENTS TO THE EMPLOYEE RETIREMENT INCOME SECURITY ACT OF 1974.— (1) RULES RELATING TO REDUCTION IN RATE OF BENEFIT ACCRUAL.—Section 204(b) of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (29 U.S.C. 1054(b)) is amended by adding at the end the following new paragraph: ‘‘(5) SPECIAL RULES RELATING TO AGE.— ‘‘(A) COMPARISON TO SIMILARLY SITUATED YOUNGER INDIVIDUAL.— ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—A plan shall not be treated as failing to meet the requirements of paragraph (1)(H)(i) if a participant’s accrued benefit, as determined as of any date under the terms of the plan, would be equal to or greater than that of any similarly situated, younger individual who is or could be a participant. ‘‘(ii) SIMILARLY SITUATED.—For purposes of this subparagraph, a participant is similarly situated to any other individual if such participant is identical to such other individual in every respect (including period of service, compensation, position, date of hire, work history, and any other respect) except for age. ‘‘(iii) DISREGARD OF SUBSIDIZED EARLY RETIREMENT BENEFITS.—In determining the accrued benefit as of any date for purposes of this clause, the subsidized portion of any early retirement benefit or retirementtype subsidy shall be disregarded. ‘‘(iv) ACCRUED BENEFIT.—For purposes of this subparagraph, the accrued benefit may, under the terms of the plan, be expressed as an annuity payable at normal retirement age, the balance of a hypothetical account, or the current value of the accumulated percentage of the employee’s final average compensation. ‘‘(B) APPLICABLE DEFINED BENEFIT PLANS.— ‘‘(i) INTEREST CREDITS.— ‘‘(I) IN GENERAL.—An applicable defined benefit plan shall be treated as failing to meet the requirements of paragraph (1)(H) unless the terms of the plan provide that any interest credit (or an equivalent amount) for any plan year shall be at a rate which is not greater than a market rate of return. A plan shall not be treated as failing to meet the requirements of this subclause merely because the plan provides for a reasonable minimum guaranteed rate of return or for a rate of return that is equal to the greater of a fixed or variable rate of return. ‘‘(II) PRESERVATION OF CAPITAL.—An interest credit (or an equivalent amount) of less than zero shall in no event result in the account balance or similar amount being less than the aggregate amount of contributions credited to the account.

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