Title I Plan?

[Guest notapensiongeek]

We have a 401(k) Profit Sharing Plan whose current plan participants are the owner, her spouse, and their children. All other plan participants have terminated and were paid out. The children no longer work for the company, but they still have "rollover" accounts in the plan. Plan also has non-qualifying plan assets (real estate) in which the children have a vested interest.

In the future, the company will hire people from time-to-time, but they will never work enough hours to become eligible to participate.

Is this plan subject to Title I?

Thanks!

[WDIK]

From ERISA 3(7)

The term "participant" means any employee or former employee of an employer, or any member or former member of an employee organization, who is or may become eligible to receive a benefit of any type from an employee benefit plan which covers employees of such employer or members of such organization, or whose beneficiaries may be eligible to receive any such benefit.

[Mike Preston]

In the absence of some clear guidance to the contrary, I think it is best to treat this a covered. If the parties have just the right flavor of options and ownership, you might be able to shoehorn it into non-Title I treatment, but it would not be something I'd be comfortable with unless an ERISA attorney was involved in the process.

[Guest notapensiongeek]

Thanks to you both for your input - that's what I had told the client but they didn't like my answer (not that they ever do)...so I thought I'd run it by some others.