I’m very opinionated, you know that. My opinions are just opinions, based on my experiences for 22 years as an ERISA attorney. Mainly, they are still based on my near 10 years as an attorney working for third party administrators (TPAs).
When you’re an ERISA attorney for a TPA rather than just one who has only been in private practice, you understand that certain plan provisions cause more errors than others. I’m a strong proponent of limiting loans to one outstanding at a time because I’ve seen TPAs make mistakes on paying off and accounting for multiple loans. There are other provisions I like and don’t like and it’s all about minimizing the potential for plan mistakes. Sometimes, you have to be a Scrooge to facilitate the ease of plan administration. I’m sure other people in the industry have different opinions, but when your job as an ERISA attorney for a long time was putting out administrative fires, you trying to avoid starting new ones.
