Subject to ERISA?

[Chalk R. Palin]

A private college (the "Institution") offers a salary reduction only TIAA-CREF 403(b) in which participation in the plan is voluntary. There is an SPD that indicates:

-The Institution is the administrator of the plan and is responsible for plan operation.

-The plan administrator is responsible for enrolling participants, ...and performing other duties required for operating the plan.

It's not clear what the actual "other" duties are.

Does this seem like a plan subject to ERISA?

Despite the SPD language, if they only forwarded contributions then it would likely be a Non-ERISA plan, correct?

[movedon]

Ugh. Why is there an SPD at all if the plan is trying to be non-ERISA?

[rcline46]

I think that having only one investment provider makes the plan subject to ERISA unless they are otherwise exempt, like a church plan.

[Chalk R. Palin]

The ERISA/Non-ERISA issue may not have been raised previously. There wasn't a clear intent to be exempt from ERISA, but no 5500s were filed.

I could be wrong, but TIAA has a couple of options and CREF has other options, ...do they count as two providers?

[movedon]

If I was making the argument after the fact, I would contend that limiting the plan to one vendor and the presence of some errant boilerplate language in an SPD-type document are not enough to make it an ERISA plan - if, in fact, the employer never did much more than send deferrals to TIAA CREF.