§ 2520.104-51 Alternative method of compliance for defined contribution group (DCG) reporting arrangements.

(a) General. Under the authority of section 110 of the Act and section 202 of the SECURE Act, the administrator of an employee pension benefit plan which meets the requirements of paragraph (b) of this section is not required to file a separate annual report with the Secretary of Labor as required by section 104(a)(1) of the Act.

(b) Application.

(1) This alternative method of compliance applies only to an individual account or defined contribution pension plan for a plan year in which:

(i) Such plan participates in a defined contribution group (DCG) reporting arrangement described in paragraph (c) of this section; and

(ii) A consolidated annual report containing the items set forth in § 2520.103–14 has been filed with the Secretary of Labor in accordance with § 2520.104a–9 by the common plan administrator (as described in paragraph (c)(2)(iii) of this section) for all of the plans participating in the DCG reporting arrangement (as described in paragraph (c) of this section).

(2) For purposes of this section, the terms “DCG reporting arrangement,” “DCG” or “common plan administrator” shall be used in place of the terms “plan” and “plan administrator,” in §§ 2520.103–3, 2520.103–4, 2520.103–6, 2520.103–9, 2520.103–10 and elsewhere in subpart C of this part and this subpart, as applicable.

(c) Defined contribution group (DCG) reporting arrangement. An arrangement is a “DCG reporting arrangement” or “DCG” for purposes of this section only if all plans relying on the DCG consolidated annual report described in paragraph (b)(1)(ii) of this section—

(1) Are individual account plans or defined contribution plans as defined in section 3(34) of the Act;

(2) Have—

(i) The same trustee meeting the requirements set forth in section 403(a) of the Act (“common trustee”);

(ii) The same one or more named fiduciaries designated in accordance with the requirements set forth in section 402(a) of the Act (“common named fiduciaries”), except that nothing in this paragraph (c)(2)(ii) precludes an individual employer from acting as an additional named fiduciary with respect to the individual plan it sponsors, provided that the other named fiduciaries are the same and common to all plans;

(iii) A designated plan administrator as defined in section 3(16)(A) of the Act that is the same plan administrator and common to all plans (“common plan administrator”); and

(iv) Plan years beginning on the same date (“common plan year”);

(3)

(i) Provide the same investments or investment options to participants and beneficiaries in all the plans (“common investments or common investment options”);

(ii) A single dedicated brokerage window provided by the same designated registered broker-dealer common to all plans that restricts participant and beneficiary investments solely to assets with a readily determinable fair market value as described in § 2520.103–1(c)(2)(ii)(C) will be treated as a common investment option for purposes of this paragraph (c)(3);

(4) Do not hold any employer securities at any time during the plan year, except that nothing in this paragraph (c)(4) prohibits investments in any employer's publicly traded securities within the otherwise “same investment option” described in paragraph (c)(3);

(5) Are either audited by an independent qualified public accountant (IQPA) or satisfy the audit waiver conditions in § 2520.104–46;

(6) Are not a multiemployer plan; and

(7) Are not a multiple-employer pension plan (including a pooled employer plan described in section 3(43) of the Act and a multiple-employer defined contribution pension plan described in § 2510.3–55 of this chapter).

(d) Limitations. The alternative method of compliance set out in this section does not relieve the administrator of a pension plan participating in a DCG reporting arrangement described in paragraph (c) of this section from any other requirements of Title I of the Act, including the provisions which require that plan administrators furnish copies of the summary plan description to participants and beneficiaries (section 104(b)(1)), furnish certain documents to the Secretary of Labor upon request (section 104(a)(6)), authorize the Secretary of Labor to collect information and data from employee benefit plans for research and analysis (section 513), and furnish a copy of a summary annual report to participants and beneficiaries of the plan, as required by section 104(b)(3) of the Act.

[88 FR 11812, Feb. 24, 2023]