"Historically, benefits attorneys have not, as a rule, issued opinions on the qualified status of plan documents because of the availability of periodically updated favorable determination letters, together with liberal remedial amendment periods for required changes. Under the new regime we can expect that tax and legal issues over proposed plan language will loom larger than before, including cases where model plan amendment language must be adapted to certain plans. Discretionary amendments that do not fit into any model language will give rise to even greater uncertainties."  MORE >>