Division II · Retirement Plans

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.

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Related Parts

• Part 1. Controlled Groups and Affiliated Service Groups — the threshold aggregation question
• Part 3. Fiduciary Duties and Prohibited Transactions — the duty to select and monitor a pooled plan provider, §406(b) self-dealing and affiliate compensation, §408(b)(2), and the §412 bond
• Part 5. Qualified Plan Testing, Eligibility, and Vesting — the employer-by-employer testing a MEP relocates rather than eliminates
• Part 4. Reporting, Disclosure, Recordkeeping, and Claims — Form 5500, Schedule MEP, the participant-count method, and DFVC exposure where an arrangement was wrongly treated as one plan
• Part 21. Plan Corrections: EPCRS, VFCP, and DFVCP — the correction a §413(e) spinoff does not accomplish, and the SEP/SIMPLE correction schedules
• Part 2. Plan Documents, Amendments, Mergers, and Terminations — spinoffs, §414(l) transfers, and §411(d)(6) on entry and exit
• Part 22. Government Audits and Investigations — once a final participating-employer-failure notice has gone to EBSA's Office of Enforcement
• Part 7. Defined Benefit and Hybrid Plans — DB MEP funding and PBGC treatment (DB MEPs are outside the §413(e) exception)
• Part 8. 403(b) Plans — 403(b) MEPs under Code §403(b)(15)
• Part 5. Qualified Plan Testing, Eligibility, and Vesting — plan-wide service crediting across participating employers
• Part 23. ERISA Disputes, Enforcement, Preemption, and Remedies — State auto-IRA preemption