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. Missed a filing? See past and future Form 5500 filings.
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. Welfare plans count enrolled participants, so an eligible employee who waived coverage does not count. We run the number from enrollment records rather than headcount, plan by plan, before deciding whether a filing is owed.
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. A trust usually appears when an employer sets up a VEBA to hold contributions and pay claims. A plan paid out of general assets, even a self-funded one, stays exempt while it is under 100 participants.
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. Employees can request plan documents at any time, and an administrator who cannot produce an SPD on request can face daily penalties. We draft the wrap SPD that closes the gap for plans that have never had one.
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. Schedule A figures follow each carrier’s contract year, which may not match your plan year, and commissions are reported by broker. We check that every contract on the plan has a schedule, since a missing one leaves the filing incomplete.
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. The plan administrator signs with their own electronic filing credentials, so they should register well before the deadline week. We check the figures against the carrier schedules and the prior year’s return before it goes for signature.
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. Each missed year is filed on its own return with that year’s figures and carrier schedules, so the first step is collecting records for every open year. The IRS generally waives its own late-filing penalties for plans that complete the Department of Labor program.
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. Without it, a fully insured plan often has no named plan administrator, no plan number and no ERISA claims language anywhere in writing. The wrap is amended when a carrier or benefit changes, so it does not have to be rebuilt every renewal.
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. It has to describe eligibility, how to file a claim and appeal, and who runs the plan, in terms an average employee can follow. We help put it in place alongside the wrap document so the two say the same thing.
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. Carrier changes, new contribution tiers and eligibility changes are the usual triggers. A common gap is explaining the change at open enrollment without issuing the formal notice, which leaves the SPD out of date. We draft the SMM with the renewal so it is ready when the change takes effect.
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. A plan paid entirely from the employer’s general assets is exempt from the summary, but a fully insured plan that files still sends one. It is prepared from the filed return, so the figures employees see match what the Department of Labor received.
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. They include the CHIP notice, the women’s health and cancer rights notice, and the Medicare Part D creditable coverage notice due before October 15. See every notice you owe employees for the full set.
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. The triggers are a carrier change, a new benefit, a change in eligibility and new federal rules. We keep the signed documents, amendments and prior versions together, so a Department of Labor document request can be answered on time.
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. A welfare plan that holds assets in a trust is the usual reason a small employer ends up with a filing it did not expect, so confirm how yours is funded before assuming the answer.
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. If contributions are held in a trust, or anywhere other than the employer’s general assets, the plan may have to file regardless of size. We ask the vendor in writing how the claims fund is held before giving you an answer.
Who signs the 5500?
The plan administrator, which for most employer plans is the employer itself. The signer certifies the return under penalty of perjury, so it should be someone who has reviewed it, such as the owner, CFO or HR leader. We prepare the return for signature, but the employer signs it.
What is a wrap document?
A single ERISA plan document that sits around your carrier certificates and supplies the terms they leave out. The carrier certificates still govern what is covered. The wrap governs how the plan is run: eligibility, the administrator’s authority, claims procedures and the plan year. Carrier certificates are not written to be the ERISA plan document, so a fully insured plan still needs one.
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. It works best when every benefit folded in shares the same plan year and sponsor. One return with all the carrier schedules attached is also simpler to check each year than several separate filings.
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. The program has to be used before the Department of Labor notifies you in writing about the missing filing. Once that letter arrives, the reduced penalties are no longer available.
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.
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