"Inside Out" in the World of 401(a)(4), 410(b) and Disney/Pixar

For years, I've had a way of looking at 410(b) and 401(a)(4).  I've characterized 410(b) as looking at a plan from the "outside in", and 401(a)(4) as looking at the plan from the "inside out".  And then, with the two of them working together, you wind up with a set of rules that comprehensively restricts the ability to discriminate regarding the availability and level of benefits provided under a plan.  I've always thought it was a good way to look at the complementary nature of the two provisions, especially since the 401(a)(4) regulations eventually became in many ways a sort of an intra-plan surrogate for rules of 410(b).

Why do I blather on about this now?  If but for no other reason to have an excuse to tie into "Inside Out", and to wonder aloud whether, for an animated movie, we could have real-world Oscars for things like Best Screenplay and . . . (shudder) . . . Best Picture. 

And how about a new category for Best New Theory of Psychology in a Movie as to the Manner in Which the Human Mind Operates?  Regarding the already-existing animation-specific category, I'm not sure there's a reason even to open the nominations - let's just give them the 2015 award now and move onto any number of issues that, unlike this one, are open. 

(Wow - whatta movie.  Thanks to the folks at Disney/Pixar for such a special Fathers Day gift that I could enjoy with my whole family - one that one of my sons characterized as a movie that would change his life (!).)