Advisory Opinions

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.

Data Dictionary

1999
AO/ Date/ Reference Recipient Description of Request
05/21/1999
406
408(b)

Patricia A. Shlonsky
Ulmer & Berne, LLP
Bond Court Building
1300 East Ninth Street, Suite 900
Cleveland, Ohio 44114-1583

Whether the Fund would engage in a prohibited transaction under section 406 of ERISA if it retained and compensated, for the purpose of constructing an addition to the Fund’s training facility, a general contractor or subcontractor that employs or is owned by a plan fiduciary.

05/20/1999
401(b)

Mr. Thomas W. Meagher
Actuarial Sciences Associates, Inc.
270 Davidson Avenue
Somerset, New Jersey 08873

Concerning the application of Title I of ERISA to a special purpose trust established on behalf of Michigan Consolidated Gas Co., a wholly-owned subsidiary of MCN Energy Group, Inc. Specifically, whether assets contributed to the Trust would constitute assets of an employee welfare benefit plan for purposes of Title I of ERISA.

05/19/1999
3(32)

Mr. Thomas E. Hayes
Office of City Attorney
800 City Hall
200 East Wells Street
Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53202-3551

Whether the Employees' Retirement System of the City of Milwaukee "governmental plan" status would be adversely affected if the Plan implements a city charter ordinance that provides for continued accrual of benefits by certain former governmental employees whose employment has been transferred to a private enterprise as part of an arrangement regarding operation of the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District.

04/06/1999
3(32)

Mr. Richard Tanner
Executive Director
Kentucky Magistrates and Commissioners Association
400 King’s Daughters Drive
Frankfurt, Kentucky 40601-4106

Whether the status of CERS as a "governmental plan" within the meaning of section 3(32) and section 4(b)(1) of Title I of ERISA would not be adversely affected if employees of KMCA were permitted to participate in CERS.

02/22/1999
401(b)

Laraine S. Rothenberg, Esq.
Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson
One New York Plaza
New York, New York 10004

Regarding the application of the "plan assets" regulation issued under ERISA to certain mortgage pool certificates offered by Farmer Mac. Specifically, that guaranteed mortgage-backed certificates issued by Farmer Mac are "guaranteed governmental mortgage pool certificates" within the meaning of 29 C.F.R. 2510.3-101(i)(2).

02/04/1999
3(7)

John P. Counts, Esq.
David Potts-Dupre, Esq.
Counts & Kanne
1125 15th Street, NW, Suite 444
Washington, DC 20005

Whether individuals who own business enterprises, either wholly or in part, and who provide personal services to those businesses may be "participants," within the meaning of section 3(7) of ERISA, in a multiemployer employee benefit plan.

01/25/1999
406(b)

Michael A. Lawson
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher, & Flom, LLP
300 South Grand Avenue
Los Angeles, California 90071-3144

Guidance with respect to a plan fiduciary’s decision to purchase on the secondary market, with plan assets, non-subordinated mortgage-backed pass-through certificates representing interests in a trust fund for which an affiliate of the fiduciary serves as a sub-servicer.

01/25/1999
3(32)

Greg W. Isley, CPA
McGladrey & Pullen, LLP
901 College Court
PO Box 15409
New Bern, North Carolina 28561-5409

Whether the Craven Regional Medical Center Money Purchase Pension Plan and Trust, the Craven Regional Medical Center 403(b) Tax-Sheltered Annuity Plan, and the Craven Regional Medical Center Employee Benefit Plan are "governmental plans" within the meaning of ERISA section 3(32).

01/13/1999
3(2)

John J. Castellano
29 Ossipee Road
PO Box 423
Cape Neddick, Maine 03902-0423

Whether the Suffolk University Voluntary Separation Program is an employee pension plan within the meaning of section 3(2) of ERISA, and whether ERISA governs withholding for Social Security/Medicare and state income tax by Suffolk University from separation payments being made under the University Program.

1998
AO/ Date/ Reference Recipient Description of Request
12/30/1998
3(1)

Mr. Steven L. Ball 
Ball, Noga & Tanoury 
700 Ackerman Road, Suite 450 
Columbus, Ohio 43202

Whether the Ohio Laborers’ District Council - Ohio Contractors’ Association Cooperation and Education Trust is an “employee welfare benefit plan” within the meaning of ERISA section 3(1).