The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) is a federal law that sets minimum standards for most voluntarily established retirement and health plans in private industry to provide protection for individuals in these plans.
A qualified retirement plan refers to employer-sponsored retirement plans that satisfy requirements in the Internal Revenue Code for receiving tax-deferred treatment. Most retirement plans offered by employers qualify including defined contribution plans like 401k plans and defined benefit plans like pensions.
If you have a 401(k) plan at your job or you're self-employed and contribute to a solo 401(k), then you have a qualified retirement plan that's also a defined contribution plan. Other types of qualified retirement plans include: 403(b) plans. SEP IRAs.
The Bottom Line. A qualified retirement plan is a retirement plan that is only offered by an employer and qualifies for tax breaks. By its definition, a traditional IRA is not a qualified retirement plan as it is not offered by employers, unlike 401(k)s, SEP, and SIMPLE IRAs, which make them qualified retirement plans.
A 401(k) is the most popular example of a defined contribution plan. Other examples of qualified plans include: Profit-sharing plans. 403(b) plans.
What IS an Expense Account, also known as an ERISA Account, ERISA Budgets Account, or Revenue- Sharing Account? Simply put, it's an account to which your plan provider/recordkeeper deposits the excess revenue sharing dollars they collect from the investment products used by your plan.
Under ERISA, each fund is subject to additional requirements and obligations once more than 25 percent of the fund's assets under management (AUM) are subject to ERISA (the 25 percent threshold).
In most instances, the maximum bond amount that can be required under ERISA with respect to any one plan official is $500,000 per plan. However, the maximum required bond amount is $1 million for officials of plans holding employer securities.