Employee Benefits Security Administration February 15, 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This document contains a notice of pendency before the Department of Labor (the Department) of a proposed amendment to PTE 2006-06, a prohibited transaction class exemption issued under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). Among other things, PTE 2006-06 permits a ``qualified termination administrator'' (QTA) of an individual account plan that has been abandoned by its sponsoring employer to select itself to provide services to the plan in connection with the plan's termination, and to pay itself fees for those services. This amendment is being proposed in connection with the Department's amendment of regulations relating to the Termination of Abandoned Individual Account Plans at 29 CFR 2578.1, and the Safe Harbor for Distributions from Terminated Individual Account Plans at 29 CFR 2550.404a-3, which are being published simultaneously in this issue of the Federal Register. The Department's proposed amendment to PTE 2006-06 reflects changes, enacted as part of the Pension Protection Act of 2006, Pub. L. No. 109-280, to the Internal Revenue Code and would require, as a condition of relief under the class exemption, that benefits for a missing, designated nonspouse beneficiary be directly rolled over into an inherited individual retirement plan that fully complies with Code requirements. If adopted, the proposed amendment would affect plans, participants and beneficiaries of such plans and certain persons engaging in such transactions.