The Form 5500 is the part of your plan the Department of Labor can see.
Plans that owe one file it every year, and it rests on documents most employers have never been handed: a plan document, a summary plan description, and the amendments that should follow every change. We can help you with the filing, and with the documents underneath it.
Size and funding decide it, not how the plan feels.
The small-plan exemption is narrower than most employers assume, and it covers only the filing.
100 Participants at the Start of the Year
Covered employees plus COBRA participants and covered retirees, counted on the first day of the plan year. Dependents are not counted.
Funding Changes the Answer
Under 100 participants and fully insured, unfunded or a combination of the two, the plan is exempt from filing. Hold plan assets in a trust and it files at any size.
The Exemption Stops at the Filing
An exempt plan still owes its participants a summary plan description. The regulation says so plainly, and it is the gap we find most often.
Signature-ready, with the schedules attached.
The form itself is the last step. The work is pulling the right figures from the right carriers before the deadline arrives.
The Deadline
The last day of the seventh month after the plan year ends, which is 31 July for a calendar-year plan. A Form 5558 extension adds up to two and a half months, to 15 October, but only if it is filed by the original due date.
Schedules from Each Carrier
Insured plans attach a schedule for each contract, reporting premiums and any commissions paid. Those figures come from the carriers, so they are requested early rather than chased in July.
Prepared and Ready to Sign
We can help you with the filing. The return is prepared, reviewed and handed to the plan administrator ready to sign, with instructions for submitting it electronically.
Late and Missed Years
A plan that should have filed and did not can usually still be brought current, and coming forward costs far less than being found. We can help with the back years too.
A certificate from the carrier is not a plan document.
Fully insured employers are usually handed certificates of coverage and told that is the plan. The certificates describe the insurance, but they leave out what ERISA requires the plan to say.
Wrap Plan Document
One document that wraps every carrier certificate and supplies the plan administrator, plan number, claims procedures and the other required terms, so the plan exists on paper as a single plan.
Summary Plan Description
Due within 90 days of an employee becoming covered, in plain language, with the Statement of ERISA Rights. A benefits guide does not satisfy it.
Summaries of Material Modifications
When the plan changes between SPDs, participants are told within 210 days after the plan year closes, or within 60 days for a material reduction in group health benefits.
Summary Annual Report
Plans that file a 5500 send participants a short summary of it within nine months after the plan year closes, or within two months after an extended filing deadline.
Annual Notices
The required employee notices that travel with the plan each year, kept in step with the documents so both say the same thing.
Kept Current
Documents are updated when the rules change and restated on schedule, so an audit request is answered from a file rather than a scramble.
What employers ask about the 5500 and plan documents.
We have fewer than 100 employees. Do we file?
Usually not, if the plan is fully insured or unfunded. Count participants rather than employees, and check how the plan is funded, because a trust changes the answer at any size.
Does a level-funded plan file?
The word funded means something narrower here: plan assets held in a trust. A level-funded plan paid from the employer’s general assets can still fall under the small-plan exemption, so the question is how contributions are held.
Who signs the 5500?
The plan administrator, which for most employer plans is the employer itself.
What is a wrap document?
A single ERISA plan document that sits around your carrier certificates and supplies the terms they leave out.
Can we combine our benefits into one filing?
Often, yes. A wrap document that brings the welfare benefits together as one plan can mean one 5500 with one plan number instead of several.
What if we missed a year?
Bring it current. The Department of Labor runs a delinquent filer program that reduces penalties for plans that come forward on their own, and we can help you with the filing.
Send us your renewal.
We’ll tell you whether it looks competitive, where we see opportunity, and the five questions we’d put to your carrier. No cost, and no obligation to move anything.
The renewal letter
Your current plan summary
Contribution split by tier
Enrolled counts by tier
Four documents — two more if your group is 50 or more. Nothing else; every extra one is a reason to postpone.
An independent employee benefits consulting firm. We look at the entire benefits program — cost, plan performance, risk and administration.
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