Advisory Opinions

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.

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.

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).

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).

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.