"[If] you are trying to determine whether a particular plan is exempt from ERISA, you need to ask if the 'plan' is a 'governmental plan,' not if the sponsor is a 'public' employer.... [It] might be possible for certain entities to be both public charities and governmental organizations. We discussed this in an earlier post where we referred to such entities as 'bitaxual.' And, while there are some distinct retirement plan advantages to being bitaxual, there are also some potential retirement plan pitfalls."

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