403(b) termination - restated document?

[Belgarath]

Curious as to any opinions here. Suppose you have to terminate an ERISA 403(b) plan. As with most of them, an old document that was tossed together in 2009. 403(b) plan terminations are a bit "gray" at the best of times, but there's an additional issue now.

Do you have to restate it prior to termination? Or, do you interpret things such that as long as it is restated prior to the end of the restatement window, you don't have to? While it is clearly the safe approach to restate, I'm just curious as to how folks are approaching this question. Thanks.

P.S. FWIW, in the absence of additional guidance/information, I would always restate.

[Flyboyjohn]

Since we now have pre-approved 403b documents my opinion/advice would be to restate prior to termination rather than wait.

My question is what if you terminated a 403b say in 2012, would you go back and restate the prior "best efforts" document?

[Belgarath]

Not in a million years!

[Flyboyjohn]

Would your answer be the same if instead of 2012 the 403b plan terminated 12/31/2016?

[Belgarath]

Provisionally, yes. At this point, without any additional guidance or discussions with other folks, my personal approach would be that if the plan termination date is BEFORE the IRS officially issued letters for pre-approved plans, then I wouldn't restate. Anything on or after date letters were issued, I'd restate. When I said I'd always restate, I was thinking of "post letter" termination dates, but I didn't articulate that.

I might very well be persuaded otherwise. It is just an issue that I started to consider. I'm sure lots of folks have, or soon will be, asking the same question.