Historic employee benefit plan documents

I am aware that there is a demand for historic benefit plan documents – those that compiled with the laws of a period in the past – and I maintain a range of prototype documents used by my small business practice. At the same time, we know that it is not legal to use these documents to retroactively date any employee benefit plan.

Recently I’ve noticed an increase in requests for historic documents especially with regard to changes triggered by the 2010 health reform law. I can’t get involved if the intent seems to be improper and so I tend to simply ignore these inquiries to avoid any uncomfortable situation.

But I’ve recently decided that when I am hired for a consultation on a legitimate purpose and the topic of historic documents comes up, I can point to locations online where this information is already published. I would do this with a repeat of the stipulation that retroactive dating of employee benefit plans is not permitted.