Hello! Long-time reader, first-time poster....
I have a prospective client that I won through an RFP, therefore, I didn't know a ton about the plan until we "won" the business. I don't work with any 403b plans, but I wanted to share the scenario with you for any insights:
This is a 403B plan for a college. The college states that they are ERISA exempt and the plan document reflects that as well, however, they are allowing an employer match and their plan document also designates the employer to have responsibilities that should be prohibited in a non-ERISA plan (QDRO processing, etc). They have NEVER performed testing, had a plan audit (150 pcps), or filed a 5500.
1. There isn't some legitimate reason how they could possibly be operating the plan this way, is there??? I'm not finding anything.
2. To correct this, would they have to retroactively test and file 5500's dating back to 2009?
Obviously my suggestion would be for them to hire an ERISA attorney, but I wanted to kick the tires with the experts here first in case I was missing something glaringly obvious.
