SAM #16PBGC26Q0037

PBGC Solicitation for Targeted Peer Review of Pension Insurance Modeling System (PIMS) Plan Sponsor Health Assumptions

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) is seeking a contractor to conduct a targeted peer review of its Single-Employer (SE) and Multiemployer (ME) Pension Insurance Modeling System (PIMS) models. - Government Buyer: - Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) - Policy, Research & Analysis Department - Procurement Department - No specific OEMs or commercial vendors are named; the requirement is for expert services only. - Services Requested: - Targeted peer review of assumptions and methods used in SE and ME PIMS models, focusing on how plan sponsor financial health is incorporated into projections - Review of credit rating transition models, economic scenario correlations, and withdrawal liability modeling - Recommendations for improvements and refinements - Deliverables include biweekly meetings, briefings, draft and final reports, and presentations to PBGC Board Representatives - Unique Requirements: - Contractor must provide key personnel with expertise in pension plan modeling and statistical analysis - The review covers only the current, modernized versions of the SE and ME PIMS models (not legacy models) - Remote performance is permitted - Subcontracting is allowed to ensure the best expertise - No products or hardware are being procured; this is a specialized actuarial and modeling review service.

Description

The Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21, Pub. L. No. 112-141) was enacted on July 6, 2012. Section 40233(a) of MAP-21 requires the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) to contract with a capable agency or organization that is independent of PBGC, to conduct annual peer reviews of the Single-Employer (SE) Pension Insurance Modeling System (PIMS) and Multiemployer (ME) PIMS. In practice, comprehensive reviews are conducted at least once every 5 years with targeted, more limited, reviews conducted in interim years. The focus of this Statement of Objectives (SOO) is a targeted review of SE PIMS and ME PIMS to be conducted in 2026-2027.

The PIMS models are used to develop PBGC’s annual Projections Report, a 10-year projection of the financial position of each of PBGC’s two insurance programs – the Single-Employer Program and the Multiemployer Program, and a long-term (40-year) evaluation of the solvency of the Multiemployer Program. PBGC also uses these forecasting models to analyze the potential effects of legislative proposals that impact private sector defined benefit plans and the insurance programs, as well as for additional budgeting and analysis internal to PBGC.

PBGC has deployed a new, modernized version of the SE PIMS model, which utilizes some alternative modeling assumptions and methods. As part of this deployment, PBGC constructed a new economic scenario generator; the resulting economic scenarios are used in both the SE PIMS and ME PIMS models. This targeted review covers the current versions of the SE PIMS model and the ME PIMS model; it does not cover the prior Legacy version of SE PIMS.

PBGC’s Board is seeking a qualified Contractor to perform a targeted peer review of the assumptions and methods used by the PIMS models to incorporate the financial health of plan sponsors in the projections. The remainder of this document sets forth PBGC’s specific expectations, while noting that PBGC would also welcome suggested refinements, based on the Contractor’s depth of experience and expertise in modeling defined benefit pension plans. PBGC will entertain proposed sub-contracting by the Contractor as needed to best accomplish the review.

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