In a pickle!

[Guest Mrilaomt]

Ok, I just took over pensions for work and here's what I found. There are four plans in the controlled group. All are prototype-profit sharing/401(k) plans with a match. All plans have been amended for GUST/EGTRRA - that 's the good news and the good news pretty much stops there.

Two of the plans are standardized plans outside of the 410(b)(6)© grace period (one is out of it by 11 months and the other is out of it by 7 years - pretty significant!). The other two are non-standardized plans.

All the plans have different matches (the one standardized plan that is 7 years outside of the grace period has the richeste match-but also has the smallest number of employees).

I would like to merge them all into one plan (the main parents plan); however, in the meantime, do I have to deal with the standardized plan issues? For instance, aren't standardized plans supposed to cover everyone in the controlled group - and they haven't.

Is there a retroactive plan document amendment I should be doing for the standardized plan that is only 11 months out of compliance?

Should I amend the plans to all meet the parent's plan so they are all identical - does that solve anything?

Also - none of the plans have been submitted for a determination letter - is that required?

If nothing else works - should I be heading in to the IRS EPCRS and the DOL's FVC programs? I just don't know where to start and I am do not know enough about the space to know what I am missing-this is all much different than the welfare area. Thanks

[david rigby]

Quite a mess. Although it sounds overused, the first step is probably to have this conversation with your ERISA attorney. If you don't have one, you need one now.