ERISA
U.S. federal law setting minimum standards for covered private-sector retirement and welfare plans, including fiduciary, disclosure, claims, and pension-insurance rules.
U.S. and UK retirement-benefit regulation covering plan standards, pension insurance, workplace supervision, funding, and State Pension reform.
Pension regulation depends on country, plan type, sponsor, and benefit promise. A private defined benefit plan, a defined contribution account, a public pension, and a state social-insurance benefit can all be called pensions while operating under different legal and financial systems.
| Jurisdiction | Start with | Main question |
|---|---|---|
| United States | ERISA and the governing plan document | Is this a covered private employee benefit plan, and which federal agency or rule applies? |
| United States | Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation | Is this a covered private defined benefit plan, and what insurance program or guarantee rules apply? |
| United States | Pension Protection Act of 2006 | Which funding, PBGC, automatic-enrolment, or disclosure provision amended current law? |
| United Kingdom | The Pensions Regulator | Does the issue concern workplace scheme governance, funding, or employer automatic-enrolment duties? |
| United Kingdom | Pensions Act 2014 | Does the new State Pension, contracting-out transition, pension age, or another commenced provision apply? |
The U.S. Social Security Act belongs to a separate federal social-insurance framework. Likewise, the UK State Pension is distinct from occupational schemes supervised by TPR.
For historical U.S. research, the Welfare and Pension Plans Disclosure Act shows the disclosure-focused federal framework that preceded ERISA. It should not be treated as current governing law.
Accounting pension liabilities, statutory funding measures, insurance guarantees, and settlement costs answer different questions. A plan can be underfunded on one basis but not another, and regulatory supervision does not guarantee every promised benefit.
This material is educational and is not legal, regulatory, tax, actuarial, benefits, or investment advice.
Choose a subsection first. Deeper term pages live inside each subsection, which keeps large topic hubs readable.
U.S. federal law setting minimum standards for covered private-sector retirement and welfare plans, including fiduciary, disclosure, claims, and pension-insurance rules.
PBGC is the U.S. federal agency that insures covered private-sector defined benefit plans through separate single-employer and multiemployer programs.
The Pension Protection Act of 2006 amended U.S. defined benefit funding, PBGC, automatic-enrolment, disclosure, and retirement-plan rules.
The Pensions Act 2014 introduced the UK's new State Pension framework and made related changes to contracting-out, pension age, and private pensions.
The Social Security Act is the U.S. federal law underlying retirement, survivor, disability, and other social-insurance and assistance programs.
The Pensions Regulator supervises UK workplace pension schemes and employer automatic-enrolment duties within its statutory authority.
WPPDA was an early U.S. employee-benefit disclosure law requiring plan descriptions and financial reports before ERISA superseded it.