GASB Update #78 – Guidance for Multiple-Employer Defined Benefit Pension Plans

To further enable state and local governmental employers to obtain necessary measurements and information for some multiple-employer defined benefit plans, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) issued Statement No. 78 – Pensions Provided through Certain Multiple-Employer Defined Benefit Pension Plans – in December 2015. 

Statement No. 78 amends the scope and applicability of Statement No. 68 – Accounting and Financial Reporting for Pensions – and applies to cost-sharing multiple-employer defined benefit pension plans that:

• Are not a state or local governmental pension plan.
• Provide defined benefit pensions to both employees of state or local governmental employers, and to employees of employers that are not state or local governmental employers.
• Do not have a predominant state or local governmental employer – either individually or collectively – that provides pensions through the plan.

Statement No. 78 includes requirements for recognizing and measuring pension expense, expenditures and liabilities, as well as note disclosures and required supplementary information. 

To read the full insights piece on this final statement, as well as on any other GASB updates, download our GASB Insights for information and insight into all of the most recent updates released by the GASB.