SECTION 13. DEFINITIONS

.01 Volume Submitter Plan - A “volume submitter plan” or “VS plan” refers to either a specimen plan of a VS practitioner or a plan of a client of the VS practitioner that is substantially similar to the VS practitioner’s approved specimen plan.

.02 Specimen Plan - A “specimen plan” is a sample plan of a VS practitioner (rather than the actual plan of an employer). A specimen plan may include an adoption agreement.

.03 Advisory Letter - An “advisory letter” is a written statement issued by the Service to a VS practitioner or VS mass submitter as to the acceptability of the form of a specimen plan and any related trust or custodial account under § 401(a) or § 403(a).

.04 VS Practitioner - A “VS practitioner” is any person that (1) has an established place of business in the United States where it is accessible during every business day and (2) represents to the Service that it has at least 30 employer-clients each of which is reasonably expected to timely adopt a plan that is substantially similar to the VS practitioner’s specimen plan. Notwithstanding the above, the required number of employer-clients reasonably expected to timely adopt a substantially similar money purchase pension specimen plan is reduced to 10 in the case of a VS practitioner that has specimen plans for two or more separate categories described in section 17.03, one of which is a money purchase pension plan. For example, if a VS practitioner has a money purchase pension specimen plan and no other types of plans, or if a VS practitioner has plans described in two or more categories, none of which is a money purchase pension plan, the employer-client requirement remains at 30. The deadline for timely adoption will be announced by the Service in future guidance.

A VS practitioner may submit any number of specimen plans for advisory letters provided the 30 employer requirement (or 10, if applicable) is separately satisfied with respect to each specimen plan. The Service reserves the right at any time to request from the VS practitioner a list of

the employers that have adopted or are expected to adopt the VS practitioner’s specimen plans, including the employers’ business addresses and employer identification numbers.

Notwithstanding the above, any person that has an established place of business in the United States where it is accessible during every business day may sponsor a specimen plan as a word-for-word identical adopter of a specimen plan of an VS mass submitter, regardless of the number of employers that are expected to adopt the plan.

A VS practitioner is also a practitioner that has either (a) 30 or more adopting employers in each of 30 or more states (treating, for this purpose, the District of Columbia as a state) or (b) 3000 or more adopting employers. The determination as to whether there are 3000 or more adopting employers or 30 or more adopting employers in each of 30 or more states may be made on any one date during the 12 month period ending on the date that is 60 days after the effective date of this revenue procedure. For this purpose, an adopting employer is any employer that has adopted any plan of the sponsor that has a GUST opinion letter.

By submitting an application for an advisory letter for a specimen plan under this revenue procedure (or by having an application filed on its behalf by a VS mass submitter), a person represents to the Service that it is a VS practitioner, as defined above. If the VS practitioner’s specimen plan permits the VS practitioner to amend the VS plan on behalf of adopting employers, as permitted by section 15, the VS practitioner also agrees to comply with any requirements imposed on sponsors of M&P plans by this procedure. Failure to comply with these requirements may result in the loss of eligibility to sponsor specimen plans and the revocation of advisory letters that have been issued to the VS practitioner.

.05 VS Mass Submitter — A “VS mass submitter” is any person that (1) has an established place of business in the United States where it is accessible during every business day and (2) submits advisory letter applications on behalf of at least 30 unaffiliated practitioners each of which is

sponsoring, on a word-for-word identical basis, the same specimen plan. A VS mass submitter may submit an advisory letter application on its own behalf as one of the 30 unaffiliated practitioners. For purposes of this definition, affiliation is determined under § 414(b) and (c). Additionally, the following will be considered to be affiliated: any law, accounting, consulting firm, etc., with its partners, members, associates, etc. A VS mass submitter will be treated as a VS mass submitter with respect to each specimen plan for which the 30 unaffiliated practitioner requirement is separately met.