Employee Benefits Security Administration issues additional guidance on Schedule C reporting for 2009 Form 5500

Washington – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) today released additional guidance to help plan administrators and service providers comply with the expanded requirements for reporting service provider fee and compensation information on the Form 5500 Annual Returns/Reports. The expanded requirements apply for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2009.

The new guidance is provided in the form of 25 frequently asked questions (FAQs) on the new Schedule C requirements. Some of the issues covered in the new FAQs include reporting of:

• Gifts, entertainment and other non-monetary compensation
• Compensation to hedge fund investment managers
• “Look-through” investment funds
• Mutual fund redemption fees
• ERISA fee recapture accounts

Today’s FAQs also provide clarification regarding the 2009 plan year transition relief for service providers by explaining that the transition relief also covers plan administrators and Form 5500 preparers who rely on those service providers for information needed to complete the Schedule C. The details about the transition relief were explained in an earlier set of FAQs released in July 2008.

The new FAQs are available on EBSA’s Web site at www.dol.gov/ebsa. Questions for the FAQs were developed based on feedback from the employee benefit community. The new FAQs supplement previous guidance FAQs on the Form 5500 Schedule C published in July 2008.