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

1994
AO/ Date/ Reference Recipient Description of Request
12/09/1994
407(d)(3)
407(d)(9)

Ms. Carol H. Jewett
Vinson & Elkins
2300 First City Tower
1001 Fannin
Houston, Texas 77002-6760

Whether certain plan amendments which Enron proposes to adopt in terminating the floor-offset arrangement over a period of five years would cause the arrangement to lose its status as a grandfathered floor-offset arrangement under section 9345(a)(3) of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987 (OBRA 1987), and whether Title I of ERISA applies to such arrangements.

12/07/1994
514(a)

Mr. Thomas R. Giltner 
Cox & Smith Incorporated 
112 East Pecan Street, Suite 2000 
San Antonio, Texas 78205

Whether section 514(a) of Title I of ERISA preempts the application of the Texas Unclaimed Property Statutes (Tex. Prop. Code Ann. Title 6 (West 1985)), to unclaimed benefits of those participants in the Luby's Cafeterias, Inc. Employees Profit-Sharing and Retirement Trust (the Plan) who cannot be located.

12/07/1994
3(1)

Mr. D. J. Simonetti
Berkowitz, Lefkowitz, Isom & Kushner
1600 Southtrust Tower
420 North 20th Street
Birmingham, Alabama 35203-2678

Whether the Hourly Sick Leave Policy of Parisian, Inc. (the Policy) is an employee welfare benefit plan within the meaning of section 3(1) of Title I of ERISA or a payroll practice described in Department of Labor regulation section 29 C.F.R. 2510.3-1(b)(2).

11/28/1994
403(c )(1)

Mr. Henry M. Helgen III 
McGrann Shea Franzen Carnival 
Straughn & Lamb 
2200 LaSalle Plaza
800 LaSalle Avenue
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55402-2041

Whether a proposed distribution of plan assets to contributing employers upon the termination of a multiemployer plan would constitute a prohibited inurement of plan assets to employers under section 403(c)(1) of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA).

11/28/1994
3(32)

Ms. Ruth L. Flemister 
Constangy, Brooks & Smith 
Suite 2400 
230 Peachtree Street, N.W.
Atlanta, Georgia 30303-1557

Whether the Southeast Alabama Gas District is an agency or instrumentality described in section 3(32), and whether five benefit programs offered by the Southeast Alabama Gas District to its employees are governmental plans within the meaning of section 3(32) of Title I of ERISA and, therefore, excluded from coverage under section 4(b)(1) of Title I of ERISA.

11/10/1994
3(1)
3(40)
3(5)

Mr. Stephen M. Saxon 
Groom and Nordberg 
1701 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. 
Washington, DC 20006

Whether the Missouri Pacific Employees' Health Association (MPEHA) is an applicable employee welfare benefit plan within the meaning of section 3(1) of Title I of ERISA; although previous advisement offered that MPEHA was subject to Opinion 90-11A, which concluded "MPEHA is not an employee welfare benefit plan within the meaning of section 3(1) of Title I of ERISA."

11/10/1994
3(33)
4(b)(2)

Mr. Patrick J. Foley 
Foley & Foley 
595 Market Street, Suite 1350 
San Francisco, California 94105

Whether the St. Anne's Maternity Home in Los Angeles, California, an institution of the Congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Heart employee pension plan is a church plan within the meaning of section 3(33) of Title I of ERISA, and thereby excluded from the requirements of Title I of ERISA pursuant to section 4(b)(2) and is not required to comply with the provisions of Title I of ERISA.

11/03/1994
PTE 77-4

Thomas L. O'Brien, Esq.
Vedder, Price, Kaufman & Kammholz
222 North La Salle Street
Chicago, IL 60601-1003

Whether a plan's receipt of the Core Fund's Form N-1A and the Additional Information complies with the prospectus disclosure requirement of paragraph (d) of section II of PTE 77-4.

11/03/1994
3(33)
4(b)(2)

Mr. Neal A. Mancoff 
Schiff Hardin & Waite 
7200 Sears Tower 
Chicago, Illinois 60606-6473

Whether St. Francis College of Fort Wayne, Inc. which is a college of the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration College's employee benefit plans are church plans within the meaning of section 3(33) of Title I of ERISA and are thus excluded from ERISA Title I requirements by section 4(b)(2) of ERISA.

09/16/1994
3(1)

Mr. M. Lee Price 
Hafer, Price, Rinehart & Robblee
1620 Metropolitan Park Building
1100 Olive Way
Seattle, Washington 98101

Whether the Labor Management Cooperation Committee Trust, which was established in accordance with the Labor Management Cooperation Act of 1978 by the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry, Local Union 598, AFL-CIO (Local 598) and the employers’ signatory to the Local 598 Collective Bargaining Agreement, as revised December 1991, is an employee welfare benefit plan within the meaning of section 3(1) of Title I of ERISA.