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DOL Finalizes Regulations on Electronic Filing of Apprenticeship and Training Plans and Top Hat Plans
Practical Law Legal Update w-020-8150 (Approx. 4 pages)
DOL Finalizes Regulations on Electronic Filing of Apprenticeship and Training Plans and Top Hat Plans
by Practical Law Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation
| Published on 18 Jun 2019 • USA (National/Federal) |
The Department of Labor (DOL) has issued final regulations that require electronic submission of apprenticeship and training plan notices and top hat plan statements.
On June 14, 2019, the DOL issued final regulations that require electronic filing of apprenticeship and training plan notices and top hat plan statements (84 Fed. Reg. 27952 (June 17, 2019)). These regulations finalize without changes the proposed regulations issued in September 2014 (79 Fed. Reg. 58720 (Sep. 30, 2014)) (see Legal Update, DOL Proposes Electronic Filing System for Apprenticeship and Training Plans and Top Hat Plans).
Background
ERISA requires plans subject to ERISA to comply with certain reporting and disclosure requirements under Part I of Title I (Part I requirements) (see Practice Note, Title I of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA): Overview and Health Plan Notices and Disclosures Chart). However, under an administrative exemption, welfare benefit plans that provide exclusively apprenticeship or training benefits need not meet the Part I requirements if the plan administrator:
- Files a notice with the DOL that provides the plan's name, the plan sponsor's employer identification number (EIN), the plan administrator's name, and the name and address of an office or person that can provide information about the plan.
- Takes reasonable steps to ensure that the required information is disclosed to employees who may be eligible for any course of study sponsored by the plan.
- Makes the notice available to employees on request.
Similarly, a streamlined method to satisfying the Part I requirements is available for top hat plans that are pension plans if the plan administrator:
- Files a statement with the DOL that provides the employer's name and address, the employer's EIN, a declaration by the employer that it maintains the plan(s) primarily for the purpose of providing deferred compensation for a select group of management or highly compensated employees and the number of such plans.
- Makes plan documents available to the DOL on request.
The DOL issued proposed regulations in 2014 requiring apprenticeship and training plans and top hat plans to file their notices and statements online through the Employee Benefits Security Administration's (EBSA's) website.
Final Regulations
The final regulations codify without changes the 2014 proposed regulations. Under the final regulations (29 C.F.R. §§ 2520.104-22(c) and 2520.104-23(c)), the apprenticeship and training plan notices and top hat plan statements will have to be submitted electronically through EBSA's web-based filing system, as opposed to paper filings. The DOL will no longer accept filings of these documents by mail or personal delivery.
EBSA provides webpages for electronic submission of the apprenticeship and training plan notices and top hat plan statements. These webpages provide instructions and online forms for administrators that want to file these plan documents.
The final regulations do not make substantive changes to the content requirements of the notices and statements. However, to use the electronic system, filers must input an email address (a requirement not expressly referenced in current regulations governing these filings), which will allow the DOL to immediately send the filer a confirmation email of the filing.
In the top hat plans context, the final regulations' preamble notes that only one statement needs to be filed for each employer maintaining one or more of the plans.
The preamble also reiterates some of the benefits to the new electronic filing method (which were also addressed in the proposed regulations' preamble), for example:
- Ensuring that filers submit completed notices and statements because incomplete filings cannot be submitted through the DOL's website.
- Assisting plan administrators of apprenticeship and training plans in providing notices to plan participants on request because electronically filed documents are available to the public on EBSA's website.