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
08/04/1994
206(d)(3)

Mr. Homer L. Elliott 
Drinker Biddle & Reath 
Philadelphia National Bank Building 
Broad and Chestnut Streets
Philadelphia, PA 19107

Whether VIZ Manufacturing Company’s Savings and Investment Profit-Sharing Plan can apply the "qualified domestic relations order" (QDRO) exception to the anti-assignment and alienation rules contained in section 206(d)(3) of Title I of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and sections 401(a)(13)(B) and 414(p) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (the Code).

09/09/1994
401(b)

Mr. Thomas Veal 
Deloitte & Touche
Suite 350N
1001 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, D.C. 20004-2594

Whether contributions to a purported grantor trust (the Trust) which is designed to offset liability for post-retirement benefits in accordance with Financial Accounting Standards Board Statement 106 (FAS 106) would constitute plan assets under Title I of ERISA.

08/19/1994
3(2)

Mr. Mark H. Sokolsky
Seyfarth, Shaw, Fairweather & Geraldson
55 East Monroe Street, Suite 4200
Chicago, Illinois 60603-5803

Whether Universities Research Association, Inc. has established or maintains an employee pension benefit plan within the meaning of section 3(2) of Title I of ERISA with regard to either the "retirement annuity contracts" or the "supplemental retirement annuity contracts" made available to employees of Fermilab under the annuity program.

07/21/1994
3(1)

Mr. Eugene H. Veenhuis 
Mitchell, Silberberg & Knupp 
Trident Center 
11377 West Olympic Boulevard
Los Angeles, California 90064-1683

Whether the Screen Actors Guild, Inc. (SAG) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) Industry Advancement and Cooperative Fund provides benefits to its participants and beneficiaries and is an employee welfare benefit plan within the meaning of section 3(1) of Title I of ERISA.

07/21/1994
PTE 80-26

Mr. Kenneth W. Ruthenberg, Jr.
Chang, Hallisey, Ruthenberg
Crawford & Long
8880 Cal Center Drive
Suite 250
Sacramento, CA 95826

Whether PTE 80-26 is applicable to a loan to a plan which is used solely for the payment of benefits to a beneficiary of such plan in accordance with the terms of a QDRO, provided all of the other conditions of the exemption are met.

07/14/1994
514(a)

Mr. Leonard P. Larrabee, III 
Dreyfus Service Corporation 
200 Park Avenue
New York, N.Y. 10166

Whether New York Labor Law section 193 (McKinney 1986) (Section 193) is preempted by section 514(a) of Title I of ERISA to the extent that Section 193 requires employee benefit plans covered by Title I of ERISA to secure written authorization for employee elective deferrals from their wages.

07/11/1994
2510.3-1(j)
3(1)

Ms. Catherine A. Powers 
Benefits Attorney
Air Line Pilots Association
535 Herndon Parkway 
P.O. Box 1169
Herndon, Virginia 22070

Whether the Air Line Pilots Association, International Group Loss of License Disability Income and the ALPA Group Extended Total Disability Income Insurance Plan are "employee welfare benefit plans" within the meaning of section 3(1) of ERISA.

07/11/1994
2510.3-1(j)
3(1)

Ms. Catherine A. Powers 
Benefits Attorney 
Air Line Pilots Association 
535 Herndon Parkway
P.O. Box 1169
Herndon, Virginia 22070

Whether the Air Line Pilots Association, International (ALPA) Group Legal Expense Insurance Plan is an "employee welfare benefit plan" within the meaning of section 3(1) of ERISA.

07/01/1994
2510.3-1(j)
3(1)

Ms. Catherine A. Powers Benefits Attorney 
Air Line Pilots Association 
535 Herndon Parkway 
P.O. Box 1169
Herndon, Virginia 22070

Whether the Air Line Pilots Association, International Group Accidental Death and Dismemberment Insurance Plan is an "employee welfare benefit plan" within the meaning of section 3(1) of ERISA.

07/01/1994
2510.3-1(j)
3(1)

Ms. Catherine A. Powers
Benefits Attorney
Air Line Pilots Association 
535 Herndon Parkway 
P.O. Box 1169
Herndon, Virginia 22070

Whether the Air Line Pilots Association, International (ALPA), Group Accident and Sickness Insurance Plan is an "employee welfare benefit plan" within the meaning of section 3(1) of ERISA.