SECTION 17. ADVISORY

LETTERS - INSTRUCTIONS TO VS PRACTITIONERS

.01 Employee Plans Rulings and Agreements Issues Advisory Letters - Employee Plans Rulings and Agreements will, upon the request of a VS practitioner, issue an advisory letter as to the acceptability of the form of the VS practitioner’s specimen plan under § 401(a) or § 403(a).

.02 Procedure for Requesting Advisory Letters — A request for an advisory letter relating to a specimen plan must be submitted on Form 4461–V, Application for Approval of VS Specimen Plan . This is a new form, first published in [RESERVED FOR INITIAL PUBLICATION DATE OF FORM 4461–V]. The form may be downloaded from the Internet at the following address: http://www.irs.gov . All information on the first page of the application must be typed. See section 20 for the address to file the application. The request must include the following:

(1) a copy of the specimen plan, including adoption agreement, if applicable, and any related specimen trust instrument;

(2) the required user fee submitted with Form 8717, User Fee for Employee Plan Determination Letter Request ; and

(3) an index/table of contents listing the location of all variable sections.

.03 Separate Specimen Plans and Applications Required for Different Categories of Plans - A separate specimen plan and application is required for the following categories of plans: a profit-sharing plan (without a § 401(k) arrangement), a profit-sharing plan (with a § 401(k) arrangement), a money purchase pension

not required to, include a provision that authorizes the VS practitioner to amend the plan on behalf of employers who have previously adopted the plan, so that changes in the Code, regulations, revenue rulings, other statements published by the Internal Revenue Service, or corrections of prior approved plans may be applied to all employers who have adopted the plan. The provision must state that the practitioner will no longer have the authority to amend the plan on behalf of the adopting employer as of the date the Service requires the employer to file Form 5300 as an individually designed plan because of substantial employer modifications of the specimen plan. The provision must also state that if the employer is required to obtain a determination letter in order to have reliance (for example, because the employer has modified the specimen plan), the practitioner’s authority to amend the plan on behalf of the adopting employer is conditioned on the plan being covered by a favorable determination letter.

.02 A VS practitioner who is authorized to adopt plan amendments on behalf of adopting employers must comply with the requirements in sections 7.06 and 8 through 11 that apply to M&P sponsors. Failure to do so may result in the loss of eligibility to sponsor VS plans and the revocation of advisory letters that have been issued to the VS practitioner. Thus, the VS practitioner must maintain, or have maintained on its behalf, a record of the employers that have adopted the plan, and the VS practitioner must make reasonable and diligent efforts to ensure that adopting employers have actually received and are aware of all plan amendments and that such employers adopt new documents when necessary.