Division II

Retirement Plans

The eight Parts in this Division cover the qualified retirement plan from its annual testing through the payment of benefits, together with the plan types and arrangements that follow special rules.

Testing, eligibility, and vesting. Part 5 covers the coverage and nondiscrimination tests, the 401(k) and 401(m) tests and limits, top-heavy rules, and the eligibility and vesting rules that decide who is tested and what each participant has earned.
Getting money out of the plan. Part 6 covers in-service and hardship distributions, participant loans, rollovers and withholding, required minimum distributions, and missing participants and uncashed checks.
Defined benefit plans. Part 7 covers minimum funding and the §436 benefit restrictions, cash balance and other hybrid designs, PBGC premiums and reportable events, and pension risk transfer.
Particular plan types and arrangements. Part 8 covers 403(b) plans, Part 9 employee stock ownership plans, Part 10 multiemployer plans and withdrawal liability, and Part 11 multiple employer, pooled employer, SEP, and SIMPLE arrangements.
Dividing benefits. Part 12 covers qualified domestic relations orders and the division of retirement benefits in divorce, including governmental and federal plans that follow their own regimes.

Questions about which employer maintains the plan, what the plan document must say, and who is a fiduciary are answered in Division I, and the correction of failures is covered in Division VI.

Part 5. Qualified Plan Testing, Eligibility, and Vesting

This Part covers the qualified plan's annual compliance cycle — everything that runs off one census in one testing season — plus the eligibility and vesting rules that determine who is in that census and what they have earned.

Part 6. Distributions, Loans, Rollovers, and RMDs

This Part covers hardships, in-service withdrawals, loans, rollovers, withholding, §402(f), Form 1099-R, QJSA/spousal consent, and RMDs — including the SECURE 2.0 required-beginning-date ages, the lifetime and death-benefit rules, eligible designated beneficiaries and the 10-year rule (with the final-regulation annual-distribution requirement for post-RBD deaths), beneficiary RMDs, Roth RMD treatment, and the §4974 excise tax. It also covers missing and non-responsive participants and uncashed distribution checks — the search obligation and DOL's sub-regulatory guidance package (Best Practices, CAR 2021-01, FAB 2014-01, FAB 2021-01, FAB 2025-01), the PBGC Missing Participants Program, the tax treatment of uncashed checks and of payments to State unclaimed property funds, State escheat and ERISA §514 preemption, and the Retirement Savings Lost and Found.

Part 7. Defined Benefit and Hybrid Plans

This Part covers ongoing single-employer DB and hybrid plan compliance: §§412/430 minimum funding, §436 benefit restrictions and AFTAP certifications, §430(i) at-risk status, funding waivers/§4971, cash balance and pension equity design (§411(a)(13), §411(b)(5), market rate of return, conversions), §417(e) lump-sum assumptions, §415(b) DB limits, actuarial equivalence, PBGC coverage/premiums, §4043 reportable events, §4010, §4062(e), and pension risk transfer (annuity buyouts/buy-ins/lift-outs, lump-sum windows, IB 95-1).

Part 8. 403(b) Plans

This Part covers the 403(b) plan itself: eligible-employer status, the three funding vehicles, the written plan, universal availability and the permitted exclusions (with the once-in-always-in rule), ERISA versus non-ERISA status under the DOL safe harbor, contribution limits and the special 15-year catch-up, distributions and loans, contract exchanges and information-sharing agreements, plan-to-plan transfers, termination, and 403(b) corrections.

Part 9. ESOPs and Employee Ownership

This Part covers ESOP qualification and designation (§4975(e)(7), §409(l)), leveraged/exempt-loan transactions, adequate consideration and ESOP valuation (ERISA §3(18), §408(e)), put options and §409(o) distributions, §401(a)(28) diversification and appraiser requirements, repurchase obligations, §404(a)(9)/§404(k), S-corporation ESOPs and §409(p), §1042 sales and §409(n), the §4978/§4979A excises, ESOP trustee process and DOL enforcement posture (FAB 2026-01, the employee-ownership initiative), and sales/acquisitions of ESOP companies.

Part 10. Multiemployer Plans and Withdrawal Liability

This Part covers multiemployer (Taft-Hartley) plan matters, primarily employer-side: ERISA §§4201–4225 withdrawal liability (complete/partial, industry exemptions, calculation and §4213 assumptions, the §4219/§4221 review-and-arbitration process, §4225 caps, mass withdrawal), controlled-group/successor/evade-or-avoid liability, §4204 asset-sale structuring, zone status and FIP/RP schedules, MPRA, ARPA special financial assistance, plan insolvency and the multiemployer guarantee/premiums, §515 delinquent contributions and audits, and LMRA §302(c)(5) governance and employer-trustee counseling.

Part 11. Multiple-Employer and Small-Employer Arrangements

This Part covers any arrangement in which unrelated employers share a retirement plan, and for small-employer plan selection and operation: multiple employer plans under Code §413(c) (what is tested plan-wide versus employer-by-employer, determination-letter reliance carve-outs, Schedule MEP and ERISA §103(g)); the single-ERISA-plan-or-many question under ERISA §3(5), DOL Advisory Opinion 2012-04A, and the 2019 association retirement plan rule at 29 C.F.R. §2510.3-55; PEO-sponsored plans (Rev. Proc. 2002-21/2003-86, the bona fide PEO route, and why CPEO status does not answer the qualification question); pooled employer plans and pooled plan providers (ERISA §§3(43)-(44), Code §413(e), Form PR registration under 29 C.F.R. §2510.3-44, PPP duties, conflicts, and the participating employer's retained selection-and-monitoring duty); the unified plan ("one bad apple") rule and the §413(e) notice-and-spinoff sequence for participating-employer failures; and the small-employer vehicles — SEPs, SARSEPs, SIMPLE IRA and SIMPLE 401(k) plans, starter 401(k)s, the §45E/§45E(f)/§45T/§45AA credits, the §414A automatic-enrollment mandate and its employer-by-employer application in a MEP/PEP, and State auto-IRA programs.

Part 12. QDROs and Division of Retirement Benefits

This Part covers division of retirement benefits in divorce and support matters: QDRO qualification (ERISA §206(d)(3); Code §414(p)), plan QDRO procedures, determinations, segregation, and the administrator's fiduciary role; posthumous/successive orders (29 C.F.R. §2530.206); DB separate-vs-shared-interest design and DC division formats; death, remarriage, and survivor treatment; taxation of awards (§402(e)(1)(A), §72(t)(2)(C), child-support orders); competing beneficiaries (Boggs/Egelhoff/Kennedy); and the non-ERISA regimes — IRAs (§408(d)(6)), TSP, FERS/CSRS, military retired pay, railroad retirement, and Arizona governmental plans (ASRS, PSPRS/CORP/EORP, TSRS, Nationwide 457(b)).