Health and welfare plans currently exempt from filing Schedule C of Form 5500 will remain exempt. However, starting with the 2009 Form 5500, Schedule C will require ERISA plans to provide much more detail about provider fees and compensation.
While health and welfare plans funded through a trust must file Schedule C, plans exempt under existing guidance and regulations can continue to omit this form.
A Schedule C will never be required where only employer general assets and no participant contributions are used to pay administrative expenses in connection with service providers (i.e., all participant payroll deductions are used exclusively for claims). Any insured or self-insured health welfare plan funded with employee pretax contributions through a section 125 cafeteria plan relies on Technical Release 92-01, and the DOL recently confirmed that plans that rely on Technical Release 92-01 to avoid holding employee contributions in a trust are treated as unfunded for most ERISA reporting purposes, and accordingly, they are exempt from filing the new, expanded Schedule C.
Contact [email protected] to discuss this in further detail.
