If anyone has experience drafting a 401(k) church plan for a client and may want to pick up a referral, please contact me.

Why re-invent the wheel ?

What is wrong with what is available from people like Corbel or the investment providers ?

The IRS will not pre-approve non-electing church plan documents, so an individually designed plan is the only option.

Is the plan subject to Code Section 401(K) and other Code provisions, but just not subject to ERISA??

You are correct that a nonelecting church plan has zero D letter reliance unless the plan is submitted to the IRS, even if it uses some sort of a 'pre-approved' plan document. Although it is possible to run such a plan without a D letter, it is best to go get one.

We have done an IDP 401(k) plan for an indian tribal government by starting with an IDP 401(k) document and stripping out all of the nonapplicable provisions. It takes some time and intense review, but if you use the merge and compare tools, it makes the review easier at least. If you even a little familiar with drafting documents and have access to IDP document software, you should be able to handle this.

We also prepared an government thrift plan, which sounds more complicated, but Corbel had software that included the necessary thrift language, and it was actually a little less work.

We have also done this with a nonelecting church DB plan by starting with an IDP DB document and stripping out all of the provisions that are not applicable to a nonelecting plan.

The IRS took about 11 months to approved the DB. The tribal plan document is in review with the IRS. The gov. thrift decided to delay to cycle E to submit.

I have experience drafting completely customized church plan documents, including plans with pre-1974 provisions and a 401(k) plan for a church.

So do we, but it's a secret......