550
spect to the amount of contributions and earn-
ings which, in the absence of an investment 
election by the participant, are invested by the 
plan in accordance with regulations prescribed 
by the Secretary. The regulations under this 
subparagraph shall provide guidance on the ap-
propriateness of designating default investments 
that include a mix of asset classes consistent 
with capital preservation or long-term capital 
appreciation, or a blend of both. 
‘‘(B) NOTICE REQUIREMENTS.—
‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—The requirements 
of this subparagraph are met if each par-
ticipant—
‘‘(I) receives, within a reasonable 
period of time before each plan year, 
a notice explaining the employee’s 
right under the plan to designate how 
contributions and earnings will be in-
vested and explaining how, in the ab-
sence of any investment election by 
the participant, such contributions 
and earnings will be invested, and 
‘‘(II) has a reasonable period of 
time after receipt of such notice and
551
before the beginning of the plan year 
to make such designation. 
‘‘(ii) FORM OF NOTICE.—The require-
ments of clauses (i) and (ii) of section 
401(k)(12)(D) of the Internal Revenue 
Code of 1986 shall apply with respect to 
the notices described in this subpara-
graph.’’. 
(b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—The amendments made by 
this section shall apply to plan years beginning after 
December 31, 2006. 
(2) REGULATIONS.—Final regulations under 
section 404(c)(5)(A) of the Employee Retirement In-
come Security Act of 1974 (as added by this section) 
shall be issued no later than 6 months after the date 
of the enactment of this Act. 
SEC. 625. CLARIFICATION OF FIDUCIARY RULES. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the 
date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Labor 
shall issue final regulations clarifying that the selection 
of an annuity contract as an optional form of distribution 
from an individual account plan to a participant or bene-
ficiary—
552
(1) is not subject to the safest available annuity 
standard under Interpretive Bulletin 95–1 (29 
C.F.R. 2509.95–1), and 
(2) is subject to all otherwise applicable fidu-
ciary standards. 
(b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—This section shall take effect 
on the date of enactment of this Act. 
TITLE VII—BENEFIT ACCRUAL 
STANDARDS 
SEC. 701. BENEFIT ACCRUAL STANDARDS. 
(a) AMENDMENTS TO THE EMPLOYEE RETIREMENT 
INCOME SECURITY ACT OF 1974.—
(1) RULES RELATING TO REDUCTION IN RATE 
OF BENEFIT ACCRUAL.—Section 204(b) of the Em-
ployee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (29 
U.S.C. 1054(b)) is amended by adding at the end 
the following new paragraph: 
‘‘(5) SPECIAL RULES RELATING TO AGE.—
‘‘(A) COMPARISON
TO
SIMILARLY
SITU-
ATED YOUNGER INDIVIDUAL.—
‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—A plan shall not 
be treated as failing to meet the require-
ments of paragraph (1)(H)(i) if a partici-
pant’s accrued benefit, as determined as of 
any date under the terms of the plan,
553
would be equal to or greater than that of 
any similarly situated, younger individual 
who is or could be a participant. 
‘‘(ii) SIMILARLY SITUATED.—For pur-
poses of this subparagraph, a participant 
is similarly situated to any other individual 
if such participant is identical to such 
other individual in every respect (including 
period of service, compensation, position, 
date of hire, work history, and any other 
respect) except for age. 
‘‘(iii) DISREGARD
OF
SUBSIDIZED 
EARLY RETIREMENT BENEFITS.—In deter-
mining the accrued benefit as of any date 
for purposes of this clause, the subsidized 
portion of any early retirement benefit or 
retirement-type 
subsidy 
shall 
be 
dis-
regarded. 
‘‘(iv) ACCRUED
BENEFIT.—For pur-
poses of this subparagraph, the accrued 
benefit may, under the terms of the plan, 
be expressed as an annuity payable at nor-
mal retirement age, the balance of a hypo-
thetical account, or the current value of
554
the accumulated percentage of the employ-
ee’s final average compensation. 
‘‘(B) 
APPLICABLE
DEFINED
BENEFIT 
PLANS.—
‘‘(i) INTEREST CREDITS.—
‘‘(I) IN GENERAL.—An applicable 
defined benefit plan shall be treated 
as failing to meet the requirements of 
paragraph (1)(H) unless the terms of 
the plan provide that any interest 
credit (or an equivalent amount) for 
any plan year shall be at a rate which 
is not greater than a market rate of 
return. A plan shall not be treated as 
failing to meet the requirements of 
this subclause merely because the plan 
provides for a reasonable minimum 
guaranteed rate of return or for a 
rate of return that is equal to the 
greater of a fixed or variable rate of 
return. 
‘‘(II) PRESERVATION
OF
CAP-
ITAL.—An interest credit (or an 
equivalent amount) of less than zero 
shall in no event result in the account
555
balance or similar amount being less 
than the aggregate amount of con-
tributions credited to the account. 
‘‘(III) MARKET
RATE
OF
RE-
TURN.—The Secretary of the Treas-
ury may provide by regulation for 
rules governing the calculation of a 
market rate of return for purposes of 
subclause (I) and for permissible 
methods of crediting interest to the 
account (including fixed or variable 
interest rates) resulting in effective 
rates of return meeting the require-
ments of subclause (I). 
‘‘(ii) SPECIAL RULE FOR PLAN CON-
VERSIONS.—If, after June 29, 2005, an 
applicable plan amendment is adopted, the 
plan shall be treated as failing to meet the 
requirements of paragraph (1)(H) unless 
the requirements of clause (iii) are met 
with respect to each individual who was a 
participant in the plan immediately before 
the adoption of the amendment. 
‘‘(iii) RATE OF BENEFIT ACCRUAL.—
Subject to clause (iv), the requirements of
556
this clause are met with respect to any 
participant if the accrued benefit of the 
participant under the terms of the plan as 
in effect after the amendment is not less 
than the sum of—
‘‘(I) the participant’s accrued 
benefit for years of service before the 
effective date of the amendment, de-
termined under the terms of the plan 
as in effect before the amendment, 
plus 
‘‘(II) the participant’s accrued 
benefit for years of service after the 
effective date of the amendment, de-
termined under the terms of the plan 
as in effect after the amendment. 
‘‘(iv) SPECIAL RULES FOR EARLY RE-
TIREMENT
SUBSIDIES.—For purposes of 
clause (iii)(I), the plan shall credit the ac-
cumulation account or similar amount with 
the amount of any early retirement benefit 
or retirement-type subsidy for the plan 
year in which the participant retires if, as 
of such time, the participant has met the 
age, years of service, and other require-
557
ments under the plan for entitlement to 
such benefit or subsidy. 
‘‘(v) 
APPLICABLE
PLAN
AMEND-
MENT.—For purposes of this subpara-
graph—
‘‘(I) IN
GENERAL.—The term 
‘applicable plan amendment’ means 
an amendment to a defined benefit 
plan which has the effect of con-
verting the plan to an applicable de-
fined benefit plan. 
‘‘(II) SPECIAL
RULE
FOR
CO-
ORDINATED BENEFITS.—If the bene-
fits of 2 or more defined benefit plans 
established or maintained by an em-
ployer are coordinated in such a man-
ner as to have the effect of the adop-
tion of an amendment described in 
subclause (I), the sponsor of the de-
fined benefit plan or plans providing 
for such coordination shall be treated 
as having adopted such a plan amend-
ment as of the date such coordination 
begins.
558
‘‘(III) 
MULTIPLE
AMEND-
MENTS.—The Secretary of the Treas-
ury shall issue regulations to prevent 
the avoidance of the purposes of this 
subparagraph through the use of 2 or 
more plan amendments rather than a 
single amendment. 
‘‘(IV) 
APPLICABLE
DEFINED 
BENEFIT PLAN.—For purposes of this 
subparagraph, the term ‘applicable de-
fined benefit plan’ has the meaning 
given such term by section 203(f)(3). 
‘‘(vi) 
TERMINATION
REQUIRE-
MENTS.—An applicable defined benefit 
plan shall not be treated as meeting the re-
quirements of clause (i) unless the plan 
provides that, upon the termination of the 
plan—
‘‘(I) if the interest credit rate (or 
an equivalent amount) under the plan 
is a variable rate, the rate of interest 
used to determine accrued benefits 
under the plan shall be equal to the 
average of the rates of interest used 
under the plan during the 5-year pe-
559
riod ending on the termination date, 
and 
‘‘(II) the interest rate and mor-
tality table used to determine the 
amount of any benefit under the plan 
payable in the form of an annuity 
payable at normal retirement age 
shall be the rate and table specified 
under the plan for such purpose as of 
the termination date, except that if 
such interest rate is a variable rate, 
the interest rate shall be determined 
under the rules of subclause (I). 
‘‘(C) CERTAIN
OFFSETS
PERMITTED.—A 
plan shall not be treated as failing to meet the 
requirements of paragraph (1)(H)(i) solely be-
cause the plan provides offsets against benefits 
under the plan to the extent such offsets are al-
lowable in applying the requirements of section 
401(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. 
‘‘(D) PERMITTED
DISPARITIES
IN
PLAN 
CONTRIBUTIONS
OR
BENEFITS.—A plan shall 
not be treated as failing to meet the require-
ments of paragraph (1)(H) solely because the 
plan provides a disparity in contributions or
560
benefits with respect to which the requirements 
of section 401(l) of the Internal Revenue Code 
of 1986 are met. 
‘‘(E) INDEXING PERMITTED.—
‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—A plan shall not 
be treated as failing to meet the require-
ments of paragraph (1)(H) solely because 
the plan provides for indexing of accrued 
benefits under the plan. 
‘‘(ii) PROTECTION
AGAINST
LOSS.—
Except in the case of any benefit provided 
in the form of a variable annuity, clause (i) 
shall not apply with respect to any index-
ing which results in an accrued benefit less 
than the accrued benefit determined with-
out regard to such indexing. 
‘‘(iii) INDEXING.—For purposes of 
this subparagraph, the term ‘indexing’ 
means, in connection with an accrued ben-
efit, the periodic adjustment of the accrued 
benefit by means of the application of a 
recognized investment index or method-
ology. 
‘‘(F) EARLY RETIREMENT BENEFIT OR RE-
TIREMENT-TYPE
SUBSIDY.—For purposes of
561
this paragraph, the terms ‘early retirement ben-
efit’ and ‘retirement-type subsidy’ have the 
meaning given such terms in subsection 
(g)(2)(A). 
‘‘(G) BENEFIT ACCRUED TO DATE.—For 
purposes of this paragraph, any reference to the 
accrued benefit shall be a reference to such ben-
efit accrued to date.’’. 
(2) DETERMINATIONS OF ACCRUED BENEFIT AS 
BALANCE
OF
BENEFIT
ACCOUNT
OR
EQUIVALENT 
AMOUNTS.—Section 203 of such Act (29 U.S.C. 
1053) is amended by adding at the end the following 
new subsection: 
‘‘(f) SPECIAL RULES FOR PLANS COMPUTING AC-
CRUED BENEFITS BY REFERENCE TO HYPOTHETICAL AC-
COUNT BALANCE OR EQUIVALENT AMOUNTS.—
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—An applicable defined ben-
efit plan shall not be treated as failing to meet—
‘‘(A) subject to paragraph (2), the require-
ments of subsection (a)(2), or 
‘‘(B) the requirements of section 204(c) or 
section 205(g) with respect to contributions 
other than employee contributions, 
solely because the present value of the accrued ben-
efit (or any portion thereof) of any participant is,
562
under the terms of the plan, equal to the amount ex-
pressed as the balance in the hypothetical account 
described in paragraph (3) or as an accumulated 
percentage of the participant’s final average com-
pensation. 
‘‘(2) 3-YEAR VESTING.—In the case of an appli-
cable defined benefit plan, such plan shall be treated 
as meeting the requirements of subsection (a)(2) 
only if an employee who has completed at least 3 
years of service has a nonforfeitable right to 100 
percent of the employee’s accrued benefit derived 
from employer contributions. 
‘‘(3) APPLICABLE DEFINED BENEFIT PLAN AND 
RELATED
RULES.—For purposes of this sub-
section—
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘applicable 
defined benefit plan’ means a defined benefit 
plan under which the accrued benefit (or any 
portion thereof) is calculated as the balance of 
a hypothetical account maintained for the par-
ticipant or as an accumulated percentage of the 
participant’s final average compensation. 
‘‘(B) REGULATIONS TO INCLUDE SIMILAR 
PLANS.—The Secretary of the Treasury shall 
issue regulations which include in the definition
563
of an applicable defined benefit plan any de-
fined benefit plan (or any portion of such a 
plan) which has an effect similar to an applica-
ble defined benefit plan.’’. 
(b) AMENDMENTS
TO
THE INTERNAL REVENUE 
CODE OF 1986.—
(1) RULES RELATING TO REDUCTION IN RATE 
OF BENEFIT ACCRUAL.—Subsection (b) of section 
411 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amend-
ed by adding at the end the following new para-
graph: 
‘‘(5) SPECIAL RULES RELATING TO AGE.—
‘‘(A) COMPARISON
TO
SIMILARLY
SITU-
ATED YOUNGER INDIVIDUAL.—
‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—A plan shall not 
be treated as failing to meet the require-
ments of paragraph (1)(H)(i) if a partici-
pant’s accrued benefit, as determined as of 
any date under the terms of the plan, 
would be equal to or greater than that of 
any similarly situated, younger individual 
who is or could be a participant. 
‘‘(ii) SIMILARLY SITUATED.—For pur-
poses of this subparagraph, a participant 
is similarly situated to any other individual
564
if such participant is identical to such 
other individual in every respect (including 
period of service, compensation, position, 
date of hire, work history, and any other 
respect) except for age. 
‘‘(iii) DISREGARD
OF
SUBSIDIZED 
EARLY RETIREMENT BENEFITS.—In deter-
mining the accrued benefit as of any date 
for purposes of this clause, the subsidized 
portion of any early retirement benefit or 
retirement-type 
subsidy 
shall 
be 
dis-
regarded. 
‘‘(iv) ACCRUED
BENEFIT.—For pur-
poses of this subparagraph, the accrued 
benefit may, under the terms of the plan, 
be expressed as an annuity payable at nor-
mal retirement age, the balance of a hypo-
thetical account, or the current value of 
the accumulated percentage of the employ-
ee’s final average compensation. 
‘‘(B) 
APPLICABLE
DEFINED
BENEFIT 
PLANS.—
‘‘(i) INTEREST CREDITS.—
‘‘(I) IN GENERAL.—An applicable 
defined benefit plan shall be treated
565
as failing to meet the requirements of 
paragraph (1)(H) unless the terms of 
the plan provide that any interest 
credit (or an equivalent amount) for 
any plan year shall be at a rate which 
is not greater than a market rate of 
return. A plan shall not be treated as 
failing to meet the requirements of 
this subclause merely because the plan 
provides for a reasonable minimum 
guaranteed rate of return or for a 
rate of return that is equal to the 
greater of a fixed or variable rate of 
return. 
‘‘(II) PRESERVATION
OF
CAP-
ITAL.—An interest credit (or an 
equivalent amount) of less than zero 
shall in no event result in the account 
balance or similar amount being less 
than the aggregate amount of con-
tributions credited to the account. 
‘‘(III) MARKET
RATE
OF
RE-
TURN.—The Secretary may provide by 
regulation for rules governing the cal-
culation of a market rate of return for
566
purposes of subclause (I) and for per-
missible methods of crediting interest 
to the account (including fixed or 
variable interest rates) resulting in ef-
fective rates of return meeting the re-
quirements of subclause (I). 
‘‘(ii) SPECIAL RULE FOR PLAN CON-
VERSIONS.—If, after June 29, 2005, an 
applicable plan amendment is adopted, the 
plan shall be treated as failing to meet the 
requirements of paragraph (1)(H) unless 
the requirements of clause (iii) are met 
with respect to each individual who was a 
participant in the plan immediately before 
the adoption of the amendment. 
‘‘(iii) RATE OF BENEFIT ACCRUAL.—
Subject to clause (iv), the requirements of 
this clause are met with respect to any 
participant if the accrued benefit of the 
participant under the terms of the plan as 
in effect after the amendment is not less 
than the sum of—
‘‘(I) the participant’s accrued 
benefit for years of service before the 
effective date of the amendment, de-
567
termined under the terms of the plan 
as in effect before the amendment, 
plus 
‘‘(II) the participant’s accrued 
benefit for years of service after the 
effective date of the amendment, de-
termined under the terms of the plan 
as in effect after the amendment. 
‘‘(iv) SPECIAL RULES FOR EARLY RE-
TIREMENT
SUBSIDIES.—For purposes of 
clause (iii)(I), the plan shall credit the ac-
cumulation account or similar amount with 
the amount of any early retirement benefit 
or retirement-type subsidy for the plan 
year in which the participant retires if, as 
of such time, the participant has met the 
age, years of service, and other require-
ments under the plan for entitlement to 
such benefit or subsidy. 
‘‘(v) 
APPLICABLE
PLAN
AMEND-
MENT.—For purposes of this subpara-
graph—
‘‘(I) IN
GENERAL.—The term 
‘applicable plan amendment’ means 
an amendment to a defined benefit
568
plan which has the effect of con-
verting the plan to an applicable de-
fined benefit plan. 
‘‘(II) SPECIAL
RULE
FOR
CO-
ORDINATED BENEFITS.—If the bene-
fits of 2 or more defined benefit plans 
established or maintained by an em-
ployer are coordinated in such a man-
ner as to have the effect of the adop-
tion of an amendment described in 
subclause (I), the sponsor of the de-
fined benefit plan or plans providing 
for such coordination shall be treated 
as having adopted such a plan amend-
ment as of the date such coordination 
begins. 
‘‘(III) 
MULTIPLE
AMEND-
MENTS.—The Secretary shall issue 
regulations to prevent the avoidance 
of the purposes of this subparagraph 
through the use of 2 or more plan 
amendments rather than a single 
amendment. 
‘‘(IV) 
APPLICABLE
DEFINED 
BENEFIT PLAN.—For purposes of this
569
subparagraph, the term ‘applicable de-
fined benefit plan’ has the meaning 
given 
such 
term 
by 
section 
411(a)(13). 
‘‘(vi) 
TERMINATION
REQUIRE-
MENTS.—An applicable defined benefit 
plan shall not be treated as meeting the re-
quirements of clause (i) unless the plan 
provides that, upon the termination of the 
plan—
‘‘(I) if the interest credit rate (or 
an equivalent amount) under the plan 
is a variable rate, the rate of interest 
used to determine accrued benefits 
under the plan shall be equal to the 
average of the rates of interest used 
under the plan during the 5-year pe-
riod ending on the termination date, 
and 
‘‘(II) the interest rate and mor-
tality table used to determine the 
amount of any benefit under the plan 
payable in the form of an annuity 
payable at normal retirement age 
shall be the rate and table specified
570
under the plan for such purpose as of 
the termination date, except that if 
such interest rate is a variable rate, 
the interest rate shall be determined 
under the rules of subclause (I). 
‘‘(C) CERTAIN
OFFSETS
PERMITTED.—A 
plan shall not be treated as failing to meet the 
requirements of paragraph (1)(H)(i) solely be-
cause the plan provides offsets against benefits 
under the plan to the extent such offsets are al-
lowable in applying the requirements of section 
401(a). 
‘‘(D) PERMITTED
DISPARITIES
IN
PLAN 
CONTRIBUTIONS
OR
BENEFITS.—A plan shall 
not be treated as failing to meet the require-
ments of paragraph (1)(H) solely because the 
plan provides a disparity in contributions or 
benefits with respect to which the requirements 
of section 401(l) are met. 
‘‘(E) INDEXING PERMITTED.—
‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—A plan shall not 
be treated as failing to meet the require-
ments of paragraph (1)(H) solely because 
the plan provides for indexing of accrued 
benefits under the plan.
571
‘‘(ii) PROTECTION
AGAINST
LOSS.—
Except in the case of any benefit provided 
in the form of a variable annuity, clause (i) 
shall not apply with respect to any index-
ing which results in an accrued benefit less 
than the accrued benefit determined with-
out regard to such indexing. 
‘‘(iii) INDEXING.—For purposes of 
this subparagraph, the term ‘indexing’ 
means, in connection with an accrued ben-
efit, the periodic adjustment of the accrued 
benefit by means of the application of a 
recognized investment index or method-
ology. 
‘‘(F) EARLY RETIREMENT BENEFIT OR RE-
TIREMENT-TYPE
SUBSIDY.—For purposes of 
this paragraph, the terms ‘early retirement ben-
efit’ and ‘retirement-type subsidy’ have the 
meaning given such terms in subsection 
(d)(6)(B)(i). 
‘‘(G) BENEFIT ACCRUED TO DATE.—For 
purposes of this paragraph, any reference to the 
accrued benefit shall be a reference to such ben-
efit accrued to date.’’.
572
(2) DETERMINATIONS OF ACCRUED BENEFIT AS 
BALANCE
OF
BENEFIT
ACCOUNT
OR
EQUIVALENT 
AMOUNTS.—Subsection (a) of section 411 of such 
Code is amended by adding at the end the following 
new paragraph: 
‘‘(13) SPECIAL RULES FOR PLANS COMPUTING 
ACCRUED
BENEFITS
BY
REFERENCE
TO
HYPO-
THETICAL
ACCOUNT
BALANCE
OR
EQUIVALENT 
AMOUNTS.—
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—An applicable defined 
benefit plan shall not be treated as failing to 
meet—
‘‘(i) subject to paragraph (2), the re-
quirements of subsection (a)(2), or 
‘‘(ii) the requirements of subsection 
(c) or section 417(e) with respect to con-
tributions other than employee contribu-
tions, 
solely because the present value of the accrued 
benefit (or any portion thereof) of any partici-
pant is, under the terms of the plan, equal to 
the amount expressed as the balance in the hy-
pothetical account described in paragraph (3) 
or as an accumulated percentage of the partici-
pant’s final average compensation.
573
‘‘(B) 3-YEAR VESTING.—In the case of an 
applicable defined benefit plan, such plan shall 
be treated as meeting the requirements of sub-
section (a)(2) only if an employee who has com-
pleted at least 3 years of service has a non-
forfeitable right to 100 percent of the employ-
ee’s accrued benefit derived from employer con-
tributions. 
‘‘(C) APPLICABLE DEFINED BENEFIT PLAN 
AND RELATED RULES.—For purposes of this 
subsection—
‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘applica-
ble defined benefit plan’ means a defined 
benefit plan under which the accrued ben-
efit (or any portion thereof) is calculated 
as the balance of a hypothetical account 
maintained for the participant or as an ac-
cumulated percentage of the participant’s 
final average compensation. 
‘‘(ii) REGULATIONS TO INCLUDE SIMI-
LAR
PLANS.—The Secretary shall issue 
regulations which include in the definition 
of an applicable defined benefit plan any 
defined benefit plan (or any portion of
574
such a plan) which has an effect similar to 
an applicable defined benefit plan.’’. 
(c) AMENDMENTS TO AGE DISCRIMINATION IN EM-
PLOYMENT ACT.—Section 4(i) of the Age Discrimination 
in Employment Act of 1967 (29 U.S.C. 623(i)) is amend-
ed by adding at the end the following new paragraph: 
‘‘(10) SPECIAL RULES RELATING TO AGE.—
‘‘(A) COMPARISON
TO
SIMILARLY
SITU-
ATED YOUNGER INDIVIDUAL.—
‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—A plan shall not 
be treated as failing to meet the require-
ments of paragraph (1) if a participant’s 
accrued benefit, as determined as of any 
date under the terms of the plan, would be 
equal to or greater than that of any simi-
larly situated, younger individual who is or 
could be a participant. 
‘‘(ii) SIMILARLY SITUATED.—For pur-
poses of this subparagraph, a participant 
is similarly situated to any other individual 
if such participant is identical to such 
other individual in every respect (including 
period of service, compensation, position, 
date of hire, work history, and any other 
respect) except for age.
575
‘‘(iii) DISREGARD
OF
SUBSIDIZED 
EARLY RETIREMENT BENEFITS.—In deter-
mining the accrued benefit as of any date 
for purposes of this clause, the subsidized 
portion of any early retirement benefit or 
retirement-type 
subsidy 
shall 
be 
dis-
regarded. 
‘‘(iv) ACCRUED
BENEFIT.—For pur-
poses of this subparagraph, the accrued 
benefit may, under the terms of the plan, 
be expressed as an annuity payable at nor-
mal retirement age, the balance of a hypo-
thetical account, or the current value of 
the accumulated percentage of the employ-
ee’s final average compensation. 
‘‘(B) 
APPLICABLE
DEFINED
BENEFIT 
PLANS.—
‘‘(i) INTEREST CREDITS.—
‘‘(I) IN GENERAL.—An applicable 
defined benefit plan shall be treated 
as failing to meet the requirements of 
paragraph (1) unless the terms of the 
plan provide that any interest credit 
(or an equivalent amount) for any 
plan year shall be at a rate which is
576
not greater than a market rate of re-
turn. A plan shall not be treated as 
failing to meet the requirements of 
this subclause merely because the plan 
provides for a reasonable minimum 
guaranteed rate of return or for a 
rate of return that is equal to the 
greater of a fixed or variable rate of 
return. 
‘‘(II) PRESERVATION
OF
CAP-
ITAL.—An interest credit (or an 
equivalent amount) of less than zero 
shall in no event result in the account 
balance or similar amount being less 
than the aggregate amount of con-
tributions credited to the account. 
‘‘(III) MARKET
RATE
OF
RE-
TURN.—The Secretary of the Treas-
ury may provide by regulation for 
rules governing the calculation of a 
market rate of return for purposes of 
subclause (I) and for permissible 
methods of crediting interest to the 
account (including fixed or variable 
interest rates) resulting in effective