ERISA 403(c) and Mistaken Reciprocal Contributions

[Guest anygig]

Reciprocity Agreement (national covering an industry) requires mistaken contributions to be promptly returned upon discovery that the contributions were transferred to the wrong plan. Plan allows reciprocals and says to follow the reciprocity agreement terms. Under Plan, to return employer contributions (employers defined as participating employers), employer must request return and ERISA 403©(2)(A)(ii) is followed.

Mistaken contributions should have been sent to a different pension plan (DB) but were incorrectly sent to a plan in which the participant is only a traveller and not otherwise a participant.

Thoughts are that the plan provision requiring following reciprocity agreement and reciprocity agreement requiring return is fine under ERISA 403©, so long as ERISA 403©(2)(A)(ii) conditions are met.