Alternative Method of Determining Specified Employees

[SycamoreFan]

Does anyone have experience applying the alternative method of determining specified employees - specifically, if we determine our specified employees as all employees who are at a certain position level or above, do we have to constantly monitor employees to determine if they are at or above that level, or are we still able to rely on the approach permitted under the regs where we determine our specified employees once per year and update that list each April 1st.?

It's not clear in the regs, but my reading of the regs and the preamble is that we are not permitted to rely on that annual determination process (i.e., we can't look on the separation from service date to our specified employee list prepared as of the prior April 1st and if he is not on the list then he is not a specified employee), and instead we need to know at the time a person separates from service whether or not he or she is at or above that specified level that we determined would reasonably capture all specified employees. That is, there is no list if we use the alternative approach, and specified employee status is determined by whether you meet the objective standard as of your separation from service date.