The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation set the 2027 single-employer flat-rate premium at $116 per participant on October 14, up from $111, and raised the variable-rate premium cap to $783 from $751, while the variable rate itself stays at $52 per $1,000 of unfunded vested benefits for a fifth plan year, according to the agency's premium rates page. Multiemployer plans pay $42, up from $40.
Five days later the agency posted the 2027 maximum guarantee table: $8,113.64 a month for a 65-year-old in a straight-life annuity whose plan terminates in 2027, up from $7,789.77, and $7,302.28 for a joint-and-50%-survivor annuity.
Both increases land on a single-employer program with a net position of $62.2 billion at September 30, 2025, on assets of $152.3 billion against $90 billion of liabilities, per the FY2025 annual report release, and on corporate plans that Milliman's 100-company index put at 112.2% funded in September.
Key Takeaways
- The flat rate rises 4.5% to $116, from $106 two years earlier, and the cap 4.3% to $783; both are wage-indexed under ERISA section 4006.
- The $52 variable rate has been fixed in law since the SECURE 2.0 Act removed its indexing, so the cap now binds at $15,058 of unfunded vested benefits per participant, against $14,442 in 2026.
- A fully funded plan pays $116 per head in 2027 against $111, up 4.5%; a plan at the cap pays $899 against $862, up 4.3%.
- The age-65 guarantee is up 4.2% for 2027 and 9.2% over two years, from $7,431.82 in 2025.
- The multiemployer program's net position rose $516 million to $2.6 billion, covering about 11.1 million participants in about 1,300 plans.
Three indexed rates and one fixed
Three of the four rates moved with the index. Single-employer flat rate, variable-rate cap and multiemployer flat rate are all indexed to national average wages under ERISA section 4006, which is why they rose 4.5%, 4.3% and 5% respectively. Only the variable rate stayed put, because Congress removed it from indexing in the SECURE 2.0 Act, as ASPPA noted in its October report; the PBGC page lists $52 for every plan year from 2023 through 2027 and notes that the rate "is no longer indexed" as of 2024.
| PBGC rate | 2025 | 2026 | 2027 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single-employer flat rate, per participant | $106 | $111 | $116 |
| Variable rate, per $1,000 of unfunded vested benefits | $52 | $52 | $52 |
| Variable-rate cap, per participant | $717 | $751 | $783 |
| Unfunded vested benefits per participant at which the cap binds | $13,788 | $14,442 | $15,058 |
| Multiemployer flat rate, per participant | $39 | $40 | $42 |
| Maximum monthly guarantee at 65, straight life | $7,431.82 | $7,789.77 | $8,113.64 |
| Maximum monthly guarantee at 65, joint and 50% survivor | $7,010.79 | $7,302.28 |
Sources: PBGC premium rates page (updated October 14, 2026) and maximum monthly guarantee tables (updated October 19, 2026). The cap-binding figure is the cap divided by the rate, times $1,000.
A single-employer plan's per-participant premium is the flat rate plus the lesser of $52 per $1,000 of unfunded vested benefits and the cap. With the rate fixed and the cap indexed, the level of underfunding at which the cap takes over rises every year, from $13,788 per participant in 2025 to $15,058 in 2027. A plan whose unfunded vested benefits sit between those figures pays $52 on every additional $1,000 in 2027 where it would have paid nothing above the cap two years earlier.
For plans at either end of the funding range the arithmetic has inverted. A plan with no unfunded vested benefits pays $116 against $111, a 4.5% increase. A plan at the cap pays $899 against $862, a 4.3% increase. Among the three components, only the one priced on the plan's own risk no longer moves, so each year's indexing adds proportionally more to the premium of a plan that presents no claim risk to the agency.
Morgan Lewis put the multiemployer rate in a longer frame in its October 21 note: $42 is 40% above the $30 charged ten years earlier.
The surplus the premiums fund
The single-employer program's $62.2 billion net position is its fifth consecutive year in surplus, up from $54.2 billion a year earlier by Milliman's reading of the report, and the agency projects it to remain positive over the next decade. It covers about 18.4 million workers and retirees in about 22,000 plans. The American Academy of Actuaries has called the premium structure actuarially indefensible on that trajectory, with projections past $100 billion, as the site's June analysis set out.
Plans paying it are better funded than at any point in the program's history. Milliman's September Pension Funding Index put the 100 largest corporate plans at 112.2% funded, against 104.9% a year earlier, on a discount rate of 6.00% that rose 47 basis points over the year. Milliman projects a $145 billion surplus, or 112.5%, by year-end 2026 and $156 billion by year-end 2027 if the 6.00% rate holds and assets earn the expected 6.61%.
For a sponsor at that funded level the variable rate is zero and the flat rate is the whole premium: a per-head carrying cost of $116 a year that a buyout removes with the participant. On 10,000 retirees that is $1.16 million a year before administration, up from $1.11 million. The site's June piece on premium pressure found that premium drag alone can justify a pension risk transfer above the 105% funded threshold, and competitive buyout pricing has run below ABO for the retiree cohorts insurers want.
A larger guarantee on the same premium
Federal law sets the maximum guarantee by a formula tied to the Social Security contribution and benefit base, which is why it rose 4.2% for 2027 and 9.2% over two years. For 2027 the table runs from $3,651.14 a month at 55 and $5,273.87 at 60 to $13,468.64 at 70 and $24,665.47 at 75 for a straight-life annuity, with lower figures for survivor forms. The age reduction does not apply to certain disabled participants, and the table that applies is the one for the year of plan termination, or the year of bankruptcy entry if the sponsor was in bankruptcy.
Each year the ceiling rises, a larger share of a terminating plan's promised benefits falls inside the guarantee for participants above it. Yet the premium meant to price that exposure, the $52 variable rate on the plan's unfunded vested benefits, is the one component fixed in nominal dollars, while the guarantee and the flat rate both index. Unfunded vested benefits are measured on PBGC's own interest assumptions, so a rising discount rate shrinks the unfunded figure at the same time as the guarantee grows.
Comprehensive premium filings for calendar-year plans are due October 15, 2027, at the new rates. PBGC's FY2026 annual report, which will show the surplus after another year of the premiums the Academy has asked Congress to reconsider, follows in January.