Abstract
There are literally thousands of qualified deferred compensation plans in existence and, understandably, there are a number of rules which must be complied with to obtain Treasury Department approval of a qualified Plan. One might think that all pension and profit-sharing plans would contain fairly common provisions at least as they relate to the same type of plan. Such is not the case because, while many of the Treasury Department rules in this area are quite specific—for example, in setting out how much may be deducted from an employer's income, most of the rules are "guideline” in nature. It seems they were designed to allow a company to "fit" a plan to its particular needs. Therefore, there are about as many different plans as there are companies who have them. The one overriding requirement that all qualified plans must adhere to is that the plans must be for the sole benefit of employees and the plan must not discriminate in favor of officers, shareholders and highly compensated or supervisory employees.