On January 29, 2016, a private letter ruling on unsubsidized single sum benefits provided by a company’s defined benefit and contribution plans was released by the IRS. “The document numbers assigned by the IRS to its private letter rulings are composed of three groups of numbers: the first four numbers represent the year; the second group of numbers represents the week in which the document was released; the last three numbers indicate its position in the series of rulings issued that week.” According to the IRS each of the rulings will only be directed to the taxpayer who requests it. People who want to learn more about how they can factor their employee benefits into an estate plan should consult with an estate planner with experience on these types of issues.
See IRS Ruling Covers Optional Form Of Benefits, Bloomberg BNA, February 5, 2015.
