In a fully insured situation, does the Group Contract and/or Benefits Booklet issued by the provider work as the plan document? If not, can an spd be utilized as both the plan document and spd to meet the requirements of ERISA or is it best to keep the plan doc and spd as separate documents. Can you point me to an example of fully insured plan docs?

Thank you in advance for your help.

The following thread may be of interest.

http://www.benefitslink.com/boards/index.p...ST&f=25&t=20540

I think it is also interesting, and may be applicable that in July, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit held that conflicts between an SPD and its underlying plan document should be resolved in favor of the SPD. This decision was consistent with a number of similar rulings in other appellate courts.