Church pension plans

Saint Peter's University Hospital employees and retirees recently were notified that the Internal Revenue Service had issued a private letter ruling saying that their pension plan is a “church plan.”

WASHINGTON – Last week, Saint Peter's University Hospital employees and retirees were notified that the Internal Revenue Service had issued a Private Letter Ruling saying that their pension plan is a “church plan.” If allowed to stand, the ruling will mean that the pension plan will no longer be protected by ERISA (the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, the nation’s landmark pension law),

Recent Internal Revenue Service rulings on the "church plan" status of retirement plans sponsored by large hospital systems, including a ruling apparently received by the Saint Peter’s Healthcare System Retirement Plan, indicate that the IRS is disinclined to modify its long-standing interpretation of church plan exemption under federal pension law, practitioners told BNA Aug. 23.

Let me brag. The Pension Rights Center, where I serve on the board, has just helped participants in a so-called church plan achieve justice. The Pension Rights Center did not do this alone; former employees and retirees as well as the Internal Revenue Service and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) played important roles.