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Mr. Robert A. Johnson
Buchanan Ingersoll, P.C.
One Oxford Centre
301 Grant Street, 20th Floor
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15219-1410
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2000-02A
ERISA Sec. 3(33)
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Dear Mr. Johnson:
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This responds to your correspondence on behalf of Laroche College (the
College), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, an institution of higher learning of the
Congregation of the Sisters of Divine Providence, which is a religious order
of women in the Roman Catholic Church. You requested an advisory opinion
concerning whether certain employee benefit arrangements of the College are
“church plans” within the meaning of § 3(33) of Title I of the Employee
Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA or Act). Specifically, you
describe benefit arrangements known as the Laroche College Retirement Plan
and the Laroche College Health and Welfare Plan (collectively, the Plans).
You represent that, if the Plans are not “church plans,” they would be
employee benefit plans within the meaning of ERISA § 3(3) subject to Title
I of the Act.
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You submitted to the Department of Labor (the Department) documentation
about the Plans, including a private letter ruling recently issued by the
Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to the College concerning the status of the
Plans under § 414(e) of the Internal Revenue Code (the Code). In that
private letter ruling the IRS concluded, based on representations provided
by the College, that the Plans constituted church plans within the meaning
of § 414(e). As you know, Code § 414(e) defines the term “church plan”
using language that is virtually identical to ERISA § 3(33).
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We conclude that, to the extent that the College and each of the Plans are
currently operated in the same manner as was described to the IRS for
purposes of obtaining a private letter ruling, those Plans meet the church
plan definition in § 3(33) of Title I of ERISA. Accordingly, in the
Department's view, ERISA § 4(b)(2) excludes the Plans from coverage under
Title I of ERISA, provided that, as you represent, none of the Plans, if
entitled to do so, has made any election pursuant to Code § 410(d). In
light of the view expressed above regarding the status of the Plans as
“church plans” under Title I of ERISA, it is not necessary for us to
determine whether the Plans are employee benefit plans with the meaning of
ERISA § 3(3).
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This letter constitutes an advisory opinion under ERISA Procedure 76-1.
Accordingly, it is issued subject to the provisions of that procedure,
including section 10 thereof relating to the effect of advisory opinions.
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Sincerely,
John J. Canary
Chief, Division of Coverage, Reporting & Disclosure
Office of Regulations and Interpretations
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