setting up ret. plan for client -- does participation in multiple employer plan mean that client's plan is not a "new" plan?

[maverick]

Situation:

C (LLC, taxed as a partnership) participates in a multiple employer plan. Plan sponsor (A), C, and one other employer (B) participate in the plan. One of C's partners owns 100% of A and 100% of B. A and B are a controlled group, but C is not in the A/B controlled group (confirmed by an ERISA attorney). When I'm setting up the plan document for C, is the document prepared as if the C plan is a new plan?

Also, if A's plan is amended to spin off C's assets, do they come into C's plan as rollovers, transfers, or what? Subject to vesting??

I have about 50 other questions and am hoping someone who has worked through a similar situation would be willing to converse via email or private message.

Thanks.

[alanm]

They come into C's plan as a merger, no rollovers allowed as it is not a distributable event unless separation of service occurs and in this case it does not.

C should have signed an adoption agreement to be in the multiple employer plan(MEP) as should have A&B as a control group, thus any new plan setup by C is a successor plan and C must order a spinoff from the MEP, which is a merger into their new plan. Since C must have been tested in the MEP separately from AB, they have a prior ADP rate to take with them to the new plan.