Can attorney fees be paid from qualified plan assets?

This employer really needs direction / opinions from an ERISA attorney. The company may not have the resources to pay those fees but the pension plan will have excess assets.

Fees for truly settlor functions (e.g., advice about plan design and its impact on the sponsoring employer, advice about whether or not it is in the best interest of the sponsoring employer to terminate the plan at a certain point), no.

Reasonable fees necessary for implementing and operating the plan, and to update its documents for legal developments, possibly.

This may help (or not). It does discuss the differences between Settlor and Fiduciary functions and provides a few sites that may help. Also, the DOL released some guidance a few years ago related to fees. You might want to look around on their web site.

http://benefitslink.com/boards/index.php?s...c=17493&hl=