What information must be included in the SPD?

The summary plan description for a welfare benefit plan must accurately reflect the contents of the plan. Certain information must be included in the SPD, principally a statement of ERISA rights and claims procedures.

Statement of ERISA rights. The statement must describe:

1. the duties of the plan's fiduciaries;

2. the participant's right to know about his or her benefit status;

3. the participant's right to obtain more information about the plan;

4. the participant's right to be free of retaliation for exercising legal rights; and

5. the participant's right to bring lawsuits.

For a model statement, included in the ERISA regulations, see Statement of ERISA rights at ¶40,400 ].

Updates. The summary plan description must be updated every five years if the plan is amended, or every 10 years if there have been no plan amendments. If no amendment has been made in the five-year period, a new summary plan description needs to be provided only every tenth year.

Plan administrators must provide participants and beneficiaries with an updated summary plan description. A copy of the updated summary plan description must be filed with the Department of Labor only upon request.

The contents requirements for the updated summary plan description are the same as those for the initial summary plan description.

SPDs for classes of participants. What if a welfare benefit plan provides different benefits for various classes of participants and beneficiaries? For example, a plan may provide different benefits for participants employed at different plants of the employer, or even for different classes of participants in the same plant.

If different benefit levels are provided, different summary plan descriptions may be prepared that are appropriate, respectively, to the various classes. Each summary plan description so prepared must follow the style and format requirements and should contain all the required information. However, the SPD may omit information that does not apply to the class of participants or beneficiaries to which it is furnished. On the first page, the SPD should identify the class of participants and beneficiaries for which it has been prepared and the plan's coverage of other classes.