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If October 13 falls on Friday the 13th, you have good luck and your deadline is extended until Monday the 16th. Now there is a comforting thought!

Please bear in mind that I am not an investment expert, a lawyer or an expert on fiduciary rules, but... When making decisions as trustees, the owners of the company are acting as trustees of the pension fund and NOT as owners of the company. As unrealistic as that statement may be, it is a fact that if, while taking steps that fall within the authority of the trustees, the trustees place their personal interests or the interests of the sponsoring organization ahead of those of the plan and its participants, they are committing a breach of their fiduciary duties. Deciding to move the assets from one investment firm to another falls squarely within the duties of the trustees acting as trustees. As such, it is not driven by the sponsor and would not be a settlor function.

Does this mean she is not yet separated from employment? (The title of the post might imply otherwise.) If she previously separated employment, it's possible that more than one RMD is due/overdue.

The IRS would disagree.

If you are a sole proprietorship and you file on a Schedule C, then you are self-employed. The "Deduction Worksheet for Self-Employed" is applicable to you, but is only used to calculate and possibly limit the employer contribution. The employee deferral + catch-up contribution is only limited by the requirement that it can not be more than 100% of (net business profit - 1/2 SE tax). There is no reduction I am aware of that can reduce this. On Form 1040 line 29 the self-employed health insurance deduction can be reduced by (line 27 1/2 SE tax + line 28 retirement plan contributions), but not the other way around, although you can voluntarily reduce the retirement contributions to max the health insurance deduction. So if you have sufficient net self-employment income, there should be no reason that you can not make the full employee deferral + catch-up contribution + 20% of the net self-employment income from the worksheet..

Notwithstanding the fact that the maximum contribution is net business profit - 1/2 SE tax, there is but one double dip of income that I am aware of. If you make a Roth 401k contribution, that does not reduce the income available for either a traditional IRA or Roth IRA. Also, be aware of the fact that retirement plan contributions deductible on line 28 reduce the availability of that income for the Self-Employed Health Insurance deduction.

ft william would seem to agree, just received the following from them: ................ The Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 (SBJA) provides (for 2010 only) that health insurance for self-employed persons can be deducted from self-employment net earning for purposes of income tax. There has been debate about what this means for purposes of retirement plan earned income. Some commentators have suggested the health insurance deduction would raise earned income for purposes of retirement plans. The technical explanation of SBJA, Publication 560, and informal conversations with the IRS confirms that the temporary health insurance deduction has no effect on earned income for retirement plans.

No, in response to also taking the SE health insurance deduction. A review of Form 1040 instructions for line 29 (the SE Heath Ins deduction) shows it's limited to net profit less 1/2 SE tax less SE retirement plans. (See worksheet on page 27 of http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040.pdf ) Keep in mind that amounts that can't be deducted on line 29 may qualify as an itemized deduction on Schedule A (as medical expenses are allowed only in excess of 7.5% of income, it would depend on how much other income the client has for whether it would amount to much).