Takeaways

• Resolving a circuit split, the U.S. Supreme Court in M & K Employee Solutions held that actuarial assumptions used to calculate withdrawal liability may be selected after the measurement date.
• The Court reasoned that actuarial assumptions are forward-looking “predictive judgments,” and ERISA does not impose a deadline requiring them to be set before the measurement date.
• The decision’s practical effect is narrow, and employers still retain the ability to challenge assumptions.

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The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled multiemployer pension plan actuaries can retroactively change assumptions underlying their withdrawal liability calculations. M & K Employee Solutions, LLC v. Trustees of the IAM National Pension Fund, No. 23-1209 (May 21, 2026).

M & K Employee Solutions resolved a circuit court split on a narrow issue: Whether the actuarial assumptions (including the critical interest rate assumption) underlying the calculation of withdrawal liability must be selected prior to the date as of which the withdrawal liability is determined under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

Withdrawal liability is a statutory exit tax that is triggered when an employer’s obligation to contribute to a multiemployer pension plan (MEPP) completely or partially ceases. Once triggered, the liability represents a withdrawn employer’s allocable share of the MEPP’s unfunded vested benefits (UVBs).

UVBs are calculated as of the last day of the...

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