accumulated plan benefits

This Subtopic governs when a defined benefit pension plan recognizes contributions receivable in its own financial statements. Amounts due at the reporting date from employers, participants, or other funding sources (separately identified) are recognized when supported by legal or contractual requirements or a formal commitment, net of an allowance for estimated uncollectible amounts. Unfunded prior service costs and any excess of the actuarial present value of accumulated plan benefits over net assets available for benefits are not plan receivables.

ASC 960-10 is the Overall subtopic of the defined benefit pension plan accounting Topic, setting the scope of and providing an overview of financial reporting by the plan itself (not the sponsoring employer, which follows Topic 715). Defined benefit plans promise participants determinable benefits based on factors such as age, years of service, and compensation, and because the plan's net assets are the means of paying those benefits, net asset information is necessary to assess the plan's ability to pay benefits when due. The Topic applies to all ongoing plans (funded or unfunded, ERISA and non-ERISA, U.S. and comparable foreign plans reporting under U.S. GAAP) but does not itself require any plan to prepare or distribute financial statements.

ASC 960-20 governs how a defined benefit pension plan measures and reports the actuarial present value of accumulated plan benefits — the benefits reasonably expected to be paid in exchange for employee service rendered to the benefit information date. Benefits are attributed using the plan's own provisions where possible and otherwise pro rata over years of service to full vesting (vested-type benefits) or to expected separation (nonvested-type benefits), measured using pay and service history as of the benefit information date under an ongoing-plan assumption. The total must be segmented at minimum into vested benefits of participants currently receiving payments, other vested benefits, and nonvested benefits, and the significant factors causing the year-to-year change must be identified.

ASC 960-40 covers defined benefit pension plans that are terminating. Once liquidation of the plan is deemed imminent (as defined in 205-30-25-2), the plan's financial statements for periods ending after that determination — including the year-end statements even if the trigger occurred mid-year — must be prepared on the liquidation basis of accounting under Subtopic 205-30. Accumulated plan benefits are measured on that liquidation basis, with all benefits generally reported as vested, and the terminating-plan or wasting-trust circumstances must be disclosed in all subsequent plan financial statements.