Is the proposed indemnification agreement an exculpatory provision proscribed by section 410(a) of ERISA?
Section 5.04 of ERISA Procedure 76-1 (41 Fed. Reg. 36281, 36282, August 27, 1976) provides that the Department of Labor (the Department) ordinarily will not issue advisory opinions on the form or effect in operation of a plan, fund or program or a particular provision or provisions thereof subject to Title I of ERISA. Accordingly, the Department makes the following determi nations based on the assumptions that the Legal Plan will be properly terminated and all claims paid or properly forfeited so that there are no longer any participants or beneficiaries of the Legal Plan. With regard to your first question, the Department has addressed the issue of whether related plans are parties in interest with respect to one another in Prohibited Transaction Exemption 76-1 (41 Fed. Reg. 12740, 12744, March 26, 1976). As explained in the preamble to that exemption, two or more plans are not parties in interest with respect to each other merely because they are maintained by the same plan sponsors
