I know the answer to this but I am hoping there might be something out there I am missing. I just found out that the broker for a plan is the spouse of the owner of the company sponsoring the plan. The broker is receiving commissions for the plan. As far as I know this is a prohibited transaction. Is there anything I am missing here? Any PTEs I am not aware of?

It does appear to be prohibited transaction since a "spouse" of a direct or indirect owner of 50% of the employer is a "party-in-interest" (disqualified person). To my knowledge there is no PT exemption for this relationship/transaction.

What were they thinking? My experience is that they, if discovered, will be required to return the commissions to the plan, even if such were paid by the insurer etc. Whether the owner is allowed to continue as Trustee (if she does so now) is arguable. Good luck.

I had this happen also, but it was the son that was the broker. He worked in a big AGE office so he made an arrangement to title broker of record with an associate but still pulled the strings.