Non-ERISA Church Plan Auto Enroll

[cprisco]

We have a Non-ERISA 403(b) Church Plan that is looking to add automatic enrollment. they want to apply it only to employees who will be eligible to receive the match (which has a stricter eligibility requirement than salary deferrals). Is this something they would be allowed to do?

[Peter Gulia]

Before considering your query about applying an automatic-enrollment provision only to match-eligible employees rather than all elective-deferral-eligible employees, the church might want its lawyers' advice about whether the plan is a church plan and, if ERISA does not govern the plan, about the effect of each State's wage-payment law that might apply.