The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision regarding IBM’s cash balance pension plan. In addition, the IRS has begun to review moratorium cash balance plans, i.e, those cash balance plans that were converted from defined benefit plans before June 29, 2005. And with the Pension Protection Act of 2006 clarifying the legality of new cash balance plans, it looks like they are here to stay. Indeed, cash balance pension plans will become a more significant tax planning technique in designing retirement plans for closely-held business and professional firms. Much more on this topic to follow here in the future.
