ji20874,
I did not very well articulate what I was hoping to locate - here it is: because DoL gave me an assurance that exceeding their WD was permissible AND they would send me their guidance supporting that position, that DoL guidance is ideally what I am looking for. The two variations of your framing of my question have both been very thoroughly answered (thanks to everyone who replied). Also, for people just jumping on this thread and preparing to hit send on their advice, akin to, 'Well, why don't you just ask DoL?' - I have repeatedly talked with their office and gotten assurances they would email me the document (they won't give out their email addresses), to no avail. Thanks all.