Transfer of plan claim records between administrators

P/OPINION 75-58


                                                              107


                          July 9, 1975


Dear              :

This is in response to your letter in which you request
approval of the transfer of claim records from the
predecessor plan administrator,          Life Insurance
Company, to the successor plan administrator,
Trust Company Trustee.

While section 107 of the Employee Retirement Income Security
Act of 1974 (ERISA) requires the retention of claims records
by the plan administrator for six years from the filing date
for such documents, we find that it will result in an unreasonable
administrative burden on the plan where the plan's administration
is being transferred. To insist on strict adherence to a
requirement which would result in confusion, delays, and
increased costs to the plan would be adverse to the interests
of the plan participants. In this case, a transfer of plan
records is consistent with the purposes of ERISA and necessary
for effective and efficient administration of the plan.
However, the transferor remains responsible for compliance
with the recordkeeping provisions of ERISA for the part
of the six year period during which it was responsible
for maintaining the records.

          Life Insurance Company may therefore transfer its
records to the          Trust Company Trustee provided that
the predecessor retains a listing of the records transferred.
Under the terms of ERISA, the predecessor remains responsible
for the retention of records, but we shall not hold [Predecessor]
in noncompliance with section 107 unless there is some violation
of the recordkeeping provisions directly attributable to it.

I am hopeful that this will resolve your problem.

Sincerely,