Advisory Opinions

Requests for interpretations and other rulings under Title 1 of ERISA are handled by the Office of Regulations and Interpretations under the provisions established by ERISA Procedure 76-1. The office answers inquiries from individuals and organizations in the form of advisory opinions, which apply the law to a specific set of facts, or information letters, which merely call attention to well established principles or interpretations.

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**1978**
AO/ Date/ Reference	Recipient	Description of Request
1978-18A 09/20/1978 3(2)	Mr. P. Kelleher Riess Molony, Nolan, North, Riess & Hall Suite 500 Commerce Building New Orleans, Louisiana 70112	Whether certain monthly payments by the Douglas-Guardian Warehouse Corporation to some employees upon retirement constitute an employee pension benefit plan within the meaning of ERISA.
1978-17A 09/15/1978 3(3) 406	Mr. Kevin B. McGrath Shea, Gould, Climenko & Casey 330 Madison Avenue New York, New York 10017	Whether certain welfare and pension payments to retired members of the Newspaper and Mail Deliverers’ Union of New York and Vicinity are exempt from coverage under Title I of ERISA.
1978-16A 09/14/1978 3(1)	Mr. Ira Michael Shepard Carr, Jordan, Coyne and Savits 900 Seventeenth Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20006	Whether the Maryland General Hospital Group Legal Services Plan is an employee welfare benefit plan within the meaning of section 3(1) of ERISA.
1978-15A 08/18/1978 3(2)	Mr. Michael W. Melton Mr. Ronald S. Rizzo Mr. James F. Carey Kindel & Anderson Twenty-Sixth Floor 555 South Flower Street Los Angeles, California 90071	Whether an employee’s proposed IRA, where the trustee of the IRA purchases stock from the employer’s parent company at fair market value, constitutes an employee pension benefit plan under the ERISA.
1978-14A 07/27/1978 3(21)	Mr. Wayne L. Horvitz Director Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service Washington, DC	Whether Mr. Eric J. Schmertz is acting as a fiduciary within the meaning of section 3(21) of ERISA in deciding, as an arbitrator, the employers’ contribution rate to the New York City Nursing Home-Local 144 Welfare Fund pursuant to the terms of a collective bargaining agreement.
1978-13A 06/27/1978 3(2)	Mr. Theron E. Fry Liddell, Sapp, Zivley & Brown 500 Gulf Building Houston, Texas 77002	Whether proposed supplemental payments to certain former employees of the Houston Chronical Publishing Company who are receiving pension benefits constitute an employee benefit plan within the meaning of ERISA.
1978-12A 04/27/1978 3(1)	Mr. Robert J. Hickey Kirlin, Campbell & Keating The Connecticut Building Suite 800 1150 Connecticut Avenue, N.W. Washington, DC 20036	Whether the International Carpentry Apprenticeship Contest Fund is an employee welfare benefit plan under section 3(1) of ERISA.
1978-11A 04/27/1978 3(1) 3(2)	Mr. William F. Drew, Jr. Kennedy, Covington, Lobdell and Hickman 3300 NCNB Plaza Charlotte, North Carolina 28280	Whether a nonqualified employee stock option purchase plan offered to employees of Lance, Inc. is an employee benefit plan within the meaning of ERISA section 3(3) and thereby covered under Title I.
1978-09A 03/17/1978 3(1)	Mr. Paul S. Berger Arnold & Porter 1229 Nineteenth Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20036	Whether the fully insured group health and accident policy held by the Cooperating Railway Labor Organizations Health and Welfare Committee is an employee welfare benefit plan under section 3(1) of ERISA.
1978-08A 03/13/1978 3(17) 401(b)(2) 408(c )(2)	Eugene T. Rossides, Esq. Rogers & Wells 1666 K Street, N.W Washington, DC 20006	Whether assets held in the College Retirement Equities Fund’s (CREF) “general” account to support obligations arising under variable annuity contracts issued by CREF and sold to pension plans are assets of such plans and, therefore, that individual members of CREF’s board of trustees are fiduciaries of such plans who would be subject to the requirements of ERISA.