Definition
Eligible Party means
(a) A court appointed representative with authority to terminate the plan and dispose of an orphan plan’s assets;
(b) In the case of an Orphan Plan under investigation by the Department of Labor, a person or entity who the Department of Labor determined has accepted responsibility for terminating the plan and distributing the plan’s assets; or
(c) In the case of a Qualified Plan to which Title I of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”) has never applied, a surviving spouse who is the sole beneficiary of a plan that provided benefits to a participant who was
(i) the sole owner of the business that sponsored the plan and
(ii) the only participant in the plan.
Referring Cite
29 CFR 2578.1, Revenue Procedure2006-27
Additional Helpful Information
Orphan plans arise for a number of reasons, including
a) the death of a sole proprietor/plan sponsor,
(b) bankruptcy,
(c) the removal of plan fiduciaries by the DOL,
(d) mergers and acquisitions, and
(e) the disappearance or unwillingness of plan fiduciaries to act. ( DOL)
