ERISA Severance Pension Plan

[Guest sjlbenefits]

I have a client who has created an ERISA Severance Plan that is a Pension Plan. The Severance Plan is a voluntary retirement arrangement that has recently been offered to employees who are age 60 with one year of service. The client acknowledges and accepts that this is a pension rather than a welfare plan and that additional steps will be necessary to comply with ERISA. The program itself is short-term in nature and no additional voluntary retirement window is anticipated in the next few years. I have the following questions regarding the arrangement:

(1) A trust is required for the assets. Who can administer the Trust? Can I arrange for a bank or a financial advisor to administer the Trust?

(2) How long does the plan have to remain in existence? A former attorney told this client that the plan would have to remain in place for 5 years, but I can't find a legal requirement for this time period.

(3) Form 5500s and SARs are required, as well as a plan document, trust document and SPD/SMM. Are there any other requirements that I am missing?

(4) When must the plan documentation be completed? The former attorney told the client that all documents had to be "filed" within 100 days following the announcement of the voluntary retirement arrangement. I cannot find any 100 day requirement. I think they are referring to the 90 day / 120 day requirement for the provision of SPDs to participants. As for filing, the only documents to be filed would be the Form 5500. Am I missing something?

(5) Participation requirements - my client extended the voluntary retirement arrangement to all employees age 60 or above with one of service, but excluded a few job titles. There does not appear to be any discrimination with respect to highly compensated employees. Is this my only concern?

The legal guidance always stresses that a severance arrangement should not be structured as a pension plan due to the burdensome requirements. I just want to make sure that I am covering all of the bases.