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the PW contributions are not compensation. person's w-2 would be $16, safe harbor would be $.48, and the profit sharing (or PW) would be $3.52 as it could be offset by the safe harbor (document should have that specific language).

3. Definitely yes. Of course ask, because never assume. But I already know the answer you will get. Best case scenario is new money goes to new vendor and you can politely ask the people at TIAA to transfer their money to your new platform. And good luck with that. Our experience is teachers view TIAA-CREF as the benefit itself. Our clients are extremely frustrated with them but the participants never want to go. Now granted, most of my clients are less than $50MM in assets. I have on in the 80 or 90 range, and there is a different level of service up there. I'm sure if you get into the billions they'll set up an office at your school :).

We have moved a couple plans away from TIAA over the years. There are usually a few issues to watch out for: 1. Money invested in TIAA Traditional generally has a 10 year payout. You may already be aware of that. 2. I have not seen any surrender charges in the share classes you reference - but that may just depend on the contract. 3. Are the assets in individual contracts? Very likely they are if the plan has been with TIAA for a while. If so, each individual will be required to sign a transfer form. Be careful on the transfer forms because they have a bar code unique to each individual (i.e. you can't just copy one form and give it to all the participants to complete). There are ways around the bar code issue.

I had an office manager once who was skimming from the company. She inflated her salary and gave herself a higher contribution than the staff. She eventually got caught and went to jail. Fortunately the client didn't think it was out fault that we didn't catch her skimming, but in retrospect the signs were there for the potential for her to have been misdirecting us for her own benefit. So with that said, IAW CuseFan. If the non-owner client contact is directing you to allocate more to her/him than the owner, a call to the owner is warranted.

I think it's one of those questions that needs to be asked inversely: "Is there any IRS publication or reference that I can use to confirm that the cash value should NOT [my emphasis] be included in the RMD calculation?" The answer is "no." Can't think of any reason at all to exclude that.