Requests for interpretations and other rulings under Title 1 of ERISA are handled by the Office of Regulations and Interpretations under the provisions established by ERISA Procedure 76-1. The office answers inquiries from individuals and organizations in the form of advisory opinions, which apply the law to a specific set of facts, or information letters, which merely call attention to well established principles or interpretations.
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2017
AO/ Date/ Reference
Recipient
Description of Request
Vanessa A. Scott, Esq.
Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP
700 Sixth Street NW, Suite 700
Washington, DC 20001-3980
This advisory opinion concerns how the definition of employee welfare benefit plan and the definition of multiple employer welfare arrangement might apply to a program of administrative services.
2015
AO/ Date/ Reference
Recipient
Description of Request
Nancy S. Gerrie
McDermott Will & Emery
227 West Monroe Street
Chicago, Illinois 60606-5096
Whether stop-loss insurance policies purchased by a plan sponsor to manage risk associated with a self-insured contributory welfare plan would constitute plan assets.
Christopher Chediak
Weintraub Tobin
400 Capitol Mall, 11th Floor
Sacramento, California 95814
Whether a long term disability program is an "employee welfare benefit plan" within the meaning of ERISA 3(1) sponsored by the California Law Enforcement Association as an "employees' beneficiary association" within the meaning of ERISA 3(4).
2013
AO/ Date/ Reference
Recipient
Description of Request
Susan M. Camillo, Esq.
Dechert LLP
200 Clarendon Street, 27th Floor
Boston, MA 02116-5021
Whether certain deferred prosecution agreements entered into by an investment manager's affiliate constitute criminal "convictions" for purposes of Section I(g) of PTE 84-14, thereby disqualifying the investment manager from acting as a qualified professional asset manager under PTE 84-14.
Melanie Franco Nussdorf, Esq.
Steptoe & Johnson LLP
1330 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20036
Whether the delivery of a "summary prospectus" satisfies certain disclosure requirements of PTE 77-4.
Stephen M. Saxon
Andree M. St. Martin
Groom Law Group, Chartered
1701 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20006-5811
This advisory opinion concerns the application of ERISA plan asset and fiduciary obligations to contractual arrangements between plans and service providers whereby a plan obtains credits or rights to share in revenue sharing payments the service provider receives as a result of plan investments.
Andrew F. Zazzali, Jr., Esq.
Zazzali, Fagella, Nowak, Kleinbaum & Friedman
One Riverfront Plaza, Suite 320
Newark, New Jersey 07102
Whether documents involving participation in the Teamsters Joint Council No. 73 Pension Plan by “officers, business agents, trustees, or clerical employees” of the Joint Council and local unions affiliated with the Joint Council constitute “collective bargaining agreements” for purposes of making an election that the plan be treated as a multiemployer plan pursuant to ERISA section 3(37)(G)(i)(II).
3(14)
3(21)
406
PTE 84-14
PTE 96-23
Melanie Franco Nussdorf, Esq.
Steptoe & Johnson LLP
1330 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20036-1795
This advisory opinion concerns the application of the fiduciary and prohibited transaction provisions of ERISA to certain “cleared swap” transactions conducted pursuant to provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act.