Thanks John,
All good stuff, and you are pretty close in your analysis of the demographics. Actually all 5 of the NHCs will receive more than 3% in the match. But we will need to benefit at least 1 NHC in Component Plan, as you are correct, there is one non-Key HCE who must receive the top heavy minimum, so the benefiting NHC will need to get the gateway.
This is actually a bit of damage control. The census they originally provided to run the original illustrations showed the two younger children of the owner as not deferring, and since HCEs do not receive the safe harbor match, the ABT was not an issue. Now we get the numbers for 2013 and of course the children are deferring.
To me this is a starting point. They are not concerned about providing additional benefits to the HCEs so if they want to be more equitable to the NHCs we know that will not be an issue, based on your agreement of the testing method above.
I can't thank you enough for taking the time to work through this.