The Internal Revenue Service has a variety of definitions for topics related to retirement accounts for employees. These can include things such as a 401(k) plan, a defined benefit plan, as well as other types. For all of these, you are going to have what is known as a “plan administrator”. What exactly is a plan administrator in the eyes of the Internal Revenue Service? You want to understand the definition from the perspective of the IRS so that you know how they will handle certain transactions and deal with the authority of particular individuals about the plan.
For the Internal Revenue Service, the plan administrator is going to be the person who has the responsibility to run the plan overall. It is a person that is identified as the plan administrator in the plan document itself. The employer, a committee of employees, as well as a company executive could all act potentially as the plan administrator. A company may even hire someone to designate as the plan administrator.