Death Benefit Only plans

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A DBO plan provides (appropriately enough) benefits upon an employee's death, and no lifetime retirement or disability benefits.

Is the plan a welfare plan or pension plan under ERISA?

If the plan requires employee contributions, is a trust required?

My tentative answer is: it's probably a welfare plan, and trust is required.

I want to avoid the trust requirement. The DOL's nonenforcement policy in Technical Release 97-01 doesn't apply to unfunded plans. However, top hat pension plans are exempt from the trust requirement, and it seems inconsistent to apply it to top hat welfare plans. I don't know of any DOL enforcement in this area. Anyone have any recent experiences? I'm not entirely uncomfortable taking the position that the plan is a deferred comp plan exempt from 409A.