Multiple Employer Plan

[R. Butler]

Company A and Company B have adopted a Multiple Employer Plan. Person Z is a long time employee of Company A. Person Z quits Company A and goes to work for Company B. Does Person Z have to re-meet the eligiblity requirements with Company B?

Also forfeitures under this plan reallocate. Should forfeitures of Company A employees be reallocated to only Company A employees or should they reallocate to all participants reagrdless of employer?

[Richard Anderson]

Service with any employer that adopts the multiple employer plan will count. Service with any employer that maintains the plan counts for plan purposes, so that transfers or terminations and hires by the different employers are ignored for plan purposes. So, once the person meets eligibility for the plan, changing from one employer that adopts the plan to another, does not change the status of their service for eligibility or vesting.

What does the document say about reallocating forfeitures? If forfeitures are reallocated the same as contributions, does Company A's contribution go just to Company A employees, or does it also get allocated to Company B?

[PMC]

Richard - you posed the question does the Plan allocate forfeitures among all plan participants or only among each respective employer's participants (A to A and B to b).

Does 413© allow for the allocation of contributions (or forfeitures) among all of the plan participants regardless of who the employer is making the contribution? If the plan was established after 12-31-88, does 413© only allow a deduction for contributions made by the separate employer and require an allocation only for that separate employer's employees?

[Guest Jose Rosario]

Any thoughts on the following would be appreciated:

A multiple employer plan includes a controlled group of employers and unrelated employers. The plan specifically provides that no distributable event occurs if an employee transfers between members of the CG. It is silent concerning tranfers between members of the CG and non-members, or between non-members and other non-members.

Of course, the question has come up concerning whether an employee who transferred employment from one non-member to another has experienced a distributable event.

[Richard Anderson]

No distributible event has occurred, if the participant is still employed by any employer who has adopted the plan.

[Guest Jose Rosario]

Thanks for your input. Do you have a cite I could refer to?