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Profit sharing plan paying at termination under ERISA
Summary A trustee asked whether a profit sharing plan was covered by ERISA. DOL said it saw no reason to exclude the described plan, which paid a lump sum at termination. That income deferral met the section 3(2) pension-plan definition on the supplied facts.
Document
Federal opinion letter
Agency
U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA)
Document number
P/OPINION 75-12
Date issued
July 17, 1975
Status
Unknown
EBSA's index does not mark withdrawn or superseded opinions; still posted on dol.gov as of 2026-10-26.
Status last verified October 26, 2026
Topics
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About this page: The full text below is the official document from U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA). Ezel adds the plain-English summary and tracks the document's status. The official source linked on this page is authoritative for any reliance.
P/OPINION 75-12
3(2)
July 17, 1975
Dear :
This is in further reply to your letter to the Internal
Revenue Service inquiring whether a profit sharing plan
of which you are a trustee is covered by the Employee
Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). Your
letter was referred to us for additional response
by the IRS.
From the information provided in your letter, we see no
reason to think that the plan would not be covered by ERISA.
Section 3(2) of ERISA defines a covered pension plan to
include any plan, fund or program which provides retire-
ment income to employees or results in a deferral of
income regardless of the method of calculating the
contributions, the benefits, or the method of distributing
benefits. In our opinion, this definition would include
a profit sharing plan such as you describe, which provides
a lump sum payment on termination of employment.
Sincerely,
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