29 U.S.C. § 1103 : US Code - Section 1103: Establishment of trust

Search 29 U.S.C. § 1103 : US Code - Section 1103: Establishment of trust

(a) Benefit plan assets to be held in trust; authority of trustees
Except as provided in subsection (b) of this section, all assets
of an employee benefit plan shall be held in trust by one or more
trustees. Such trustee or trustees shall be either named in the
trust instrument or in the plan instrument described in section
1102(a) of this title or appointed by a person who is a named
fiduciary, and upon acceptance of being named or appointed, the
trustee or trustees shall have exclusive authority and discretion
to manage and control the assets of the plan, except to the extent
that -
(1) the plan expressly provides that the trustee or trustees
are subject to the direction of a named fiduciary who is not a
trustee, in which case the trustees shall be subject to proper
directions of such fiduciary which are made in accordance with
the terms of the plan and which are not contrary to this chapter,
or
(2) authority to manage, acquire, or dispose of assets of the
plan is delegated to one or more investment managers pursuant to
section 1102(c)(3) of this title.
(b) Exceptions
The requirements of subsection (a) of this section shall not
apply -
(1) to any assets of a plan which consist of insurance
contracts or policies issued by an insurance company qualified to
do business in a State;
(2) to any assets of such an insurance company or any assets of
a plan which are held by such an insurance company;
(3) to a plan -
(A) some or all of the participants of which are employees
described in section 401(c)(1) of title 26; or
(B) which consists of one or more individual retirement
accounts described in section 408 of title 26;
to the extent that such plan's assets are held in one or more
custodial accounts which qualify under section 401(f) or 408(h)
of title 26, whichever is applicable.
(4) to a plan which the Secretary exempts from the requirement
of subsection (a) of this section and which is not subject to any
of the following provisions of this chapter -
(A) part 2 of this subtitle,
(B) part 3 of this subtitle, or
(C) subchapter III of this chapter; or
(5) to a contract established and maintained under section
403(b) of title 26 to the extent that the assets of the contract
are held in one or more custodial accounts pursuant to section
403(b)(7) of title 26.
(6) Any plan, fund or program under which an employer, all of
whose stock is directly or indirectly owned by employees, former
employees or their beneficiaries, proposes through an unfunded
arrangement to compensate retired employees for benefits which
were forfeited by such employees under a pension plan maintained
by a former employer prior to the date such pension plan became
subject to this chapter.
(c) Assets of plan not to inure to benefit of employer; allowable
purposes of holding plan assets
(1) Except as provided in paragraph (2), (3), or (4) or
subsection (d) of this section, or under sections 1342 and 1344 of
this title (relating to termination of insured plans), or under
section 420 of title 26 (as in effect on October 22, 2004), the
assets of a plan shall never inure to the benefit of any employer
and shall be held for the exclusive purposes of providing benefits
to participants in the plan and their beneficiaries and defraying
reasonable expenses of administering the plan.
(2)(A) In the case of a contribution, or a payment of withdrawal
liability under part 1 of subtitle E of subchapter III of this
chapter -
(i) if such contribution or payment is made by an employer to a
plan (other than a multiemployer plan) by a mistake of fact,
paragraph (1) shall not prohibit the return of such contribution
to the employer within one year after the payment of the
contribution, and
(ii) if such contribution or payment is made by an employer to
a multiemployer plan by a mistake of fact or law (other than a
mistake relating to whether the plan is described in section
401(a) of title 26 or the trust which is part of such plan is
exempt from taxation under section 501(a) of title 26), paragraph
(1) shall not prohibit the return of such contribution or payment
to the employer within 6 months after the plan administrator
determines that the contribution was made by such a mistake.
(B) If a contribution is conditioned on initial qualification of
the plan under section 401 or 403(a) of title 26, and if the plan
receives an adverse determination with respect to its initial
qualification, then paragraph (1) shall not prohibit the return of
such contribution to the employer within one year after such
determination, but only if the application for the determination is
made by the time prescribed by law for filing the employer's return
for the taxable year in which such plan was adopted, or such later
date as the Secretary of the Treasury may prescribe.
(C) If a contribution is conditioned upon the deductibility of
the contribution under section 404 of title 26, then, to the extent
the deduction is disallowed, paragraph (1) shall not prohibit the
return to the employer of such contribution (to the extent
disallowed) within one year after the disallowance of the
deduction.
(3) In the case of a withdrawal liability payment which has been
determined to be an overpayment, paragraph (1) shall not prohibit
the return of such payment to the employer within 6 months after
the date of such determination.
(d) Termination of plan
(1) Upon termination of a pension plan to which section 1321 of
this title does not apply at the time of termination and to which
this part applies (other than a plan to which no employer
contributions have been made) the assets of the plan shall be
allocated in accordance with the provisions of section 1344 of this
title, except as otherwise provided in regulations of the
Secretary.
(2) The assets of a welfare plan which terminates shall be
distributed in accordance with the terms of the plan, except as
otherwise provided in regulations of the Secretary.