Division V
Governmental, Church, and Tribal Plans
The single Part in this Division covers plans whose rules turn on the type of employer rather than the type of plan: plans of State and local governments and their instrumentalities, church plans, and plans of Indian tribal governments and tribal enterprises.
Part 20 addresses the questions that come first in every such matter: whether the plan is exempt from ERISA, on what authority, and what body of law governs it instead. It covers the §414(d) governmental-plan definition, the §414(e) church-plan definition and the church-plan election, the 2006 tribal-plan amendment and the line between governmental and commercial tribal activity, and the State-law rules that govern many public plans, including the Arizona retirement systems.
Most governmental and church employers also sponsor 403(b) plans, which are treated in Part 8.
Part 20. Governmental, Church, and Tribal Plans
This Part applies whenever the employer type, rather than the plan type, drives the analysis: a State or local government, public school district, charter school, public hospital or authority; a church or convention of churches, a church-affiliated hospital, university, or agency, or a denominational pension board; or an Indian tribal government or tribal enterprise. The unifying question is whether the plan is outside ERISA, and on what authority.