Opinion letters database

A plan maintained by a company under contract to provide services for a Federal agency was not a governmental plan excluded from Title IV coverage.

A plan maintained by a municipal corporation with a board appointed by elected officials is within the meaning of a governmental plan and is therefore excluded from Title IV coverage.

Embalmers and funeral directors are not professional individuals under 4021(c), thus a plan they maintain is not excluded from coverage as a professional service employer plan.

Conversion from a defined benefit plan to an individual account plan/defined contribution plan is treated as a termination and is subject to the plan termination provisions of Section 4041.

Addresses whether the described plan meets the definition of defined benefit plan covered by Title IV.

Addresses parameters of individual account plan/defined contribution plan.

PBGC explains that in general, an exempted individual account plan is to be distinguished from a covered defined benefit plan in which the amount of the retirement benefit is specified in the plan. If a plan is established and maintained by insurance contracts that does not in itself exempt the plan from Title IV coverage.

Individual account plan is exempt from coverage.

Plan is covered under Title IV because it meets the requirements of the Internal Revenue Code and is ineligible for the professional service employer exclusion.

Successor plan subject to Title IV coverage because predecessor plan was covered.

Plan of municipal corporation designated by constitution as political subdivision of state and having taxing power is a governmental plan exempt under ERISA 4021(b)(2).

The plan is excluded from Title IV coverage because it is a governmental plan.

Tax qualified defined benefit plans are generally covered.

Plans had terminated prior to the enactment of ERISA and therefore were not covered by Title IV.

Explains that the five-year premium payment requirement applies only to contingent liability coverage under (former) section 4023, and clarifies the application of the five-year phase-in rule to recently established plans or amendments.

Determined that plans are governmental plans, excluded from coverage.

Plan is a governmental plan maintained pursuant to a contract with a federal agency and is excluded from Title IV coverage. Premium payments will be refunded.

Individual account plan is exempt from coverage.

Section 4021(b)(2) of ERISA excludes from coverage any government plan. PBGC determined that this plan is not a governmental plan because the plan is typically treated as a private employer, and there is no evidence that Congress intended to deprive these employees of Title IV protection.

The only participant entitled to be credited with service or receive any benefit under the plan has continuously fallen within the definition of a "substantial owner.”

Tax qualified defined benefit plans are generally covered.

Defined benefit plans maintained in Canada for employees who work and reside there, all of whom are nonresident aliens, are excluded from coverage under 4021(b)(7), even though the employer is a division of a U.S. corporation.

Participation in a plan maintained by more than one employer, some of which are not governmental entities, precludes the application of the governmental plan exclusion of section 4021(b)(2).

Plan must be communicated to eligible participants to be tax qualified and covered under Title IV.

Plan is not a governmental plan that is exempt from Title IV coverage.