Cafeteria Plan Document

[Guest dchaviano]

I'm pretty sure I've just inherited a disaster from a co-worker who up and quit yesterday. A client (XYZ Corporation with 0 employees) has fives subsidiary's and each subsidiary currently has their own cafeteria plan. The client has mentioned that they want all of the subsidiaries to be covered under the same plan document, so only one Form 5500 has to be filed. I know a wrap document can be used to bundle the various benefit plans offered under each cafeteria plan; but is there a way to group all of the cafeteria plan's under one plan document and only file one 5500? If so, do the eligibility requirements and benefits offered have to be the same for all plans?

Basically, what I'm trying to do is create a single plan document named XYZ Corporation and Affiliated Companies Cafeteria Plan and file one 5500 that covers all of the plan's without having to change the benefits available or eligibility requirements of each subsidiary's plan. Any help would be greatly appreciated because I'm at an absolute loss as to what to do

[QDROphile]

I don't see your problem, other than it will be a more complex document than may be usual for you. One way to organize the doucment is to have each subsidiary adopt the plan. Each subsidiary's adoption document would set out the eligibility and benefits terms applicable to the employees of the subsidiary in lieu of the general terms of the plan. The plan document would have terms providing for adoption by subsidiaries and the ability to modify by adopting special terms in the adoption document. You might not consider that to be one plan document, but "plan document" is not a precise image.

Different eligibility and benefits can be accommodated under Form 5500, but attention should be given to the applicable discrimination rules.

[Chaz]

A wrap plan is the way to go.

One clarification, if all the subsidiaries are in the same "control group," you already have to pass the various nondiscrimination tests, even before combining the plans under one plan number.