Opinion ID: 3021464
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: IT Corporation’s Deferred Compensation Plan

Text: IT Corporation adopted the Plan in January of 1996. Participation in the Plan was limited to “non-employee directors and to employees . . . who are part of a select group of management or highly compensated employees.” Plan ¶ 2.1. The Plan document specifies that it “constitutes an unfunded plan,” that participants in the Plan have “no legal or equitable right, interest or claim in any property or assets of” the Corporation or its affiliates and that the Corporation’s obligation under the Plan is “merely that of an unfunded and unsecured promise to pay money in the future.” Plan ¶ 13.1. The Plan is administered by a committee established by the Corporation’s President and Chief Executive Officer. Plan ¶ 10.1. IT Corporation agreed to establish a trust in connection with the Plan, Plan ¶ 1.28, and to “transfer over to the Trust such assets, if any, as the Committee determines, from time to time and in its sole discretion, are appropriate,” Plan ¶ 12.1. At the same time that it adopted the Plan, the Corporation adopted a “Master Trust Agreement for Deferred Compensation Plans.” The Trust Agreement provided that assets contributed to the Trust were to be held “subject to the claims of the Company’s and the Subsidiaries’ creditors in the event of their Insolvency,” and that the Trust would not “affect the status of the Plans as unfunded plans maintained for the purpose of providing supplemental compensation for a 11 select group of management, highly compensated employees and/or Directors for purposes of Title I of ERISA.” Trust ¶ 1.2.