Corporate Trustee - who signs what?

[HarleyBabe]

I have been contracted by an employer to assist in the termination process for a large auto employer. This was a bundled plan, very poorly managed I might add. The institution was named the corporate trustee for some reason. Bear in mind the employer has been very hands off, which I guess is why they went with the financial institution being the trustee but now, several issues must be addressed and I am not quite sure who does what. Add to this, it is an Affiliated Service Group.

The plan has decided to terminate. That said, who signs the termination paperwork? The financial institution told them they needed an attorney to terminate the plan I am assuming because they had no clue how to handle. Not sure why they were told that when they prepared all the documents, participation agreements for the employers and restatements so really just not clear on why they wouldn't prepare the termination paperwork. At any rate, back to my question, who signs the termination paperwork and all the distribution forms?

Next question, it appears that one of the members of the Affiliated Service Group left the Group during this plan year. I don't have any paperwork for that as it appears to be a Partial Termination. Also, the sponsor didn't match any of the participants salary deferrals because there is a 1000 hour requirement and that group left before that could be reached. I just seem to have an array of issues and need a bit of direction.

So questions as follows:

Who signs the termination paperwork for each Employer of the Group?

I assume each Employer in the Group needs termination paperwork, correct?

The Group that left, what to do about that? Left with no termination paperwork and didn't receive contributions?

Anything else I should be addressing that isn't coming to mind while I am typing this for documentation purposes?

[mbozek]

I have been contracted by an employer to assist in the termination process for a large auto employer. This was a bundled plan, very poorly managed I might add. The institution was named the corporate trustee for some reason. Bear in mind the employer has been very hands off, which I guess is why they went with the financial institution being the trustee but now, several issues must be addressed and I am not quite sure who does what. Add to this, it is an Affiliated Service Group.

The plan has decided to terminate. That said, who signs the termination paperwork? The financial institution told them they needed an attorney to terminate the plan I am assuming because they had no clue how to handle. Not sure why they were told that when they prepared all the documents, participation agreements for the employers and restatements so really just not clear on why they wouldn't prepare the termination paperwork. At any rate, back to my question, who signs the termination paperwork and all the distribution forms?

Next question, it appears that one of the members of the Affiliated Service Group left the Group during this plan year. I don't have any paperwork for that as it appears to be a Partial Termination. Also, the sponsor didn't match any of the participants salary deferrals because there is a 1000 hour requirement and that group left before that could be reached. I just seem to have an array of issues and need a bit of direction.

So questions as follows:

Who signs the termination paperwork for each Employer of the Group?

I assume each Employer in the Group needs termination paperwork, correct?

The Group that left, what to do about that? Left with no termination paperwork and didn't receive contributions?

Anything else I should be addressing that isn't coming to mind while I am typing this for documentation purposes?

You are asking questions for which no one can provide the answers without reviewing the relevant documents, plan, trust, TPA agreement, etc. This is why clients retain counsel. If the plan covers union employees it will be even more complex. Someone is going to have to pay for the cost of reviewing the documents to determine the responsible parties. No one will take any fiduciary risk in terminating the plan until the above questions are answered.

ING was probably named as corporate trustee to fulfill the requirement that the plan have a trustee under ERISA. (Q did this plan offer ING investment products for participant's contributions?) It is also possbile that ING was a prototype plan sponsor without fiduciary responsibilities under ERISA which is permitted under ERISA 403(a)(1) which is another reason why counsel is needed to determine who is responsibile for terminating the plan. The financial institution told the plan to hire counsel because plan termination is outside the scope of the institutions' responsiblity/expertise under the trust agreement. You need to find out if there is a pension committee that has fiduciary oversight over the plan. Unless this is an orphan plan there is a paper trail of who has responsibilities for administering and terminating the plan.

As for the question of who signs the paperwork for each employer, I have seen different ways of doing it: sometimes each employer signs, other times the employers delegate the authority to one employer or a third party. Some plans may require each employer to sign a plan termination but delegate other responsibilites to another party.

What exaclty is your relationship to the plan? are you the administrator, custodian, work for the fiduciary?