Pre-Approved Plans Program

The issuance of an opinion letter for a pre-approved plan by the Employee Plans function of the Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division approves a plan as to form. Typically, once a plan is submitted for an opinion letter the entity that submits the plan (the “provider”) will begin marketing the plan for its adoption by various employers. The issuance of the opinion letter allows the provider to make retroactive changes to the form of the plan to conform to recent changes in statutory requirements. Form 4461, Form 4461-A, and Form 4461-B are used by providers to apply for approval of their employee benefit plans under section 401(a). Revenue procedure 2017-41 sets forth the procedures of the Internal Revenue Service for issuing Opinion Letters regarding the qualification in form of Pre-approved Plans under §§ 401, 403 (a), and 4975 (e) (7) of the Internal Revenue Code (Code). In addition, this revenue procedure modifies the IRS pre-approved letter program by combining the master and prototype (M&P) and volume submitter (VS) programs into a new Opinion Letter program. The M&P and VS Programs are combined and replaced by a single Opinion Letter program involving two types of plans: Standardized Plans and Nonstandardized Plans.

The latest form for Pre-Approved Plans Program expires 2021-02-28 and can be found here.

Rev Proc 2017-41 modifying Revenue Procedure 2015-36 (Master and Prototype and Volume Submitter Plans) (previously Rev. Proc. 2011-49 & 2005-16)

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