In some cases an employee benefit plan may provide different
benefits for various classes of participants and beneficiaries. For
example, a plan amendment altering benefits may apply to only those
participants who are employees of an employer when the amendment is
adopted and to employees who later become participants, but not to
participants who no longer are employees when the amendment is adopted.
(See Sec. 2520.104b-4). Similarly, a plan may provide for different
benefits for participants employed at different plants of the employer,
or for different classes of participants in the same plant. In such
cases the plan administrator may fulfill the requirement to furnish a
summary plan description to participants covered under the plan and
beneficiaries receiving benefits under the plan by furnishing to each
member of each class of participants and beneficiaries a copy of a
summary plan description appropriate to that class. Each summary plan
description so prepared shall follow the style and format prescribed in
Sec. 2520.102-2, and shall contain all information which is required to
be contained in the summary plan description under Sec. 2520.102-3. It
may omit information which is not applicable to the class of
participants or beneficiaries to which it is furnished. It should also
clearly identify on the first page of the text the class of participants
and beneficiaries for which it has been prepared and the plan's coverage
of other classes. If the classes which the employee benefit plan covers
are too numerous to be listed adequately on the first page of the text
of the summary plan description, they may be listed elsewhere in the
text so long as the first page of the text contains a reference to the
page or pages in the text which contain this information.
[67 FR 775, Jan. 7, 2002]
