§651.  Definitions

(1)  "Plan" shall mean any arrangement, agreement, contract, plan, system or trust whereby a participant acquires an enforceable right to retirement income or other compensation where payment is deferred until the termination of employment or thereafter, regardless of the method of calculating the amount of plan benefits or the mode of their distribution.  Included in this definition are plans which provide pension, retirement, disability or death benefits and deferred compensation by employment, agency, trade union, stock bonus, stock ownership, stock option and profit sharing plans.  The term plan shall also include employee pension benefit plans as defined by Section 3(2) of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, Public Law 93-406, 88 Stat. 829.

(2)  "Benefit" shall mean anything of value payable or distributable to a participant, his spouse, a beneficiary, to a participant's estate or to any other person pursuant to the terms of the plan.

(3)  "Beneficiary" shall mean any person, including the participant, entitled to receive benefits under a plan.

(4)  "Participant" shall mean an employee or other person entitled to participate and participating or formerly participating in a plan.

(5)  "Designation form" shall mean any document by which a plan permits a participant to name a beneficiary to receive plan benefits.

Added by Acts 1976, No. 494, §1.