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Who may prepare the EBS-1 plan description form
Summary A requester asked whether an external adviser had to be a lawyer to prepare Form EBS-1. DOL said it had not designed the form as a legal document in that sense, especially its short and proposed simplified versions. It reported no known state bar assertion requiring lawyers and expressed its view on the form’s preparation, without deciding state practice-of-law rules.
Document
Federal opinion letter
Agency
U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA)
Document number
P/OPINION 75-60
Date issued
November 20, 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EBSA's index does not mark withdrawn or superseded opinions; still posted on dol.gov as of 2026-10-26.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
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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 75-60
109
November 20, 1975
Dear :
This is in response to your inquiry whether the EBS-1
form is a legal document that can be prepared by an
external adviser only if the external adviser is a
lawyer. I regret that because of shortages in staff
we were not able to reply earlier to your letter.
It was not our intention when designing the original
EBS-1 form to develop a document that would be deemed
a legal document in the sense you describe. This would
be even more true of the first two pages of the EBS-1
form which was required to be filed on August 15 and
of the simplified EBS-1 form which was published in
proposed form on October 10. (A copy enclosed).
It is our understanding that the [State] Bar Association
has made no assertion that the EBS-1 must be filled out
by lawyers only. We would be very surprised if it were
to do so, and would certainly want to take issue with
the Bar Association were this to happen.
Sincerely,
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