Advisory Opinions

Whether the Department of Labor would (1) reconsider its Advisory Opinion 82-2A, which stated that the Truman Medical Center Retirement Plan (the Plan) was not a governmental plan within the meaning of section 3(32) of ERISA, (2) not implement that opinion until the Pension Benefit Guaranty completes its reconsideration of its determination that the Plan is not a governmental plan, and/or (3) delay the effective date of those decisions.

Whether the prohibited transaction rules of ERISA allow the full-time international representative of an international union to be compensated for services performed as administrator of multiemployer plans negotiated by the local chapter (and member) of the same international union

Whether an employee benefit plan required by its plan documents to have more than 50 percent of its assets invested in qualifying employer securities will satisfy the requirement of ERISA section 407(d)(6) of ERISA that an employee stock ownership plan must be designed to invest primarily in qualify employer securities.

Whether the Retail Employee’s Local 919 and Contributing Employers’ Food Pension Trust (Local 919 Trust), created by collective bargaining to receive contributions from at least three employers is a multiemployer plan under section 3(37) of ERISA, as amended by the Multiemployer Pension Plan Amendments Act of 1980, and Department of Labor regulation 29 CFR § 2510.3-37.

Whether the Baytown Mutual Benefit Association (MBA), established to furnish medical services to its members, and which has a clinic with doctors, a laboratory, an x-ray department and a pharmacy, is an employee welfare benefit plan as defined by section 3(1) of title I of ERISA, established or maintained by an employee organization, as defined in section 3(4) of ERISA, and whether section 514 of ERISA preempts an opinion from the office of the Attorney General of the State of Texas.

Whether a program under which Integon Life Insurance Corporation (Integon), a member of a control group of corporations whose parent is Ashland Oil, Inc. (AOI), proposes to offer the opportunity to purchase life insurance to certain of its employees, certain employees of corporations affiliated with AOI, and certain employees of non-affiliated companies in the same control group is an employee benefit plan as defined by section 4(3) of title I of ERISA.

Whether the Individual Retirement Annuity (IRA) payroll deduction program that Farmers and Traders Life Insurance Company (the Company) offers its home office employees constitutes an employee pension benefit plan within the meaning of section 3(2) of title I of ERISA if the Company pays towards the premium an amount equal to the sales commission that the Company would pay an agent who sold a similar annuity.

Whether under certain circumstances an individual retirement account (IRA) payroll deduction program instituted by a securities broker (Employer) for the Employer’s own employees will constitute an employee pension plan within the meaning of section 3(2) of title I of ERISA if the Employer waives certain fees that it usually charges members of the public (non-employees) enrolling in similar IRAs offered by the employer.

Whether the Easco Corporation Health Benefit Plan, with Easco providing for a self-funded arrangement for benefits not in excess of a specified amount and Aetna Life Insurance Company paying benefits in excess of such amounts under a group insurance policy, is an employee welfare benefit plan covered by title I of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA).

Whether the Individual Retirement Account (IRA) payroll deduction program the Colorado National Bank of Denver (CNB) proposes to offer employees of employers not affiliated with CNB is an employee pension benefit plan within the meaning of section 3(2) of title I of ERISA.