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We've been known to call the coroner to find out who claimed the body.... In any event, as others has said, there *is* an estate, it's just not being administered. ANYONE can administer the estate, if approved by the court. If the amount is big enough, someone can go to probate court, get appointed administrator, take the assets, then under direction of the court, disburse them. Perhaps charity, or escheatment.... Otherwise, probably the best bet is to forfeit - but if an heir comes forward down the road, pray the statute of limitations has run.

I agree with QDROphile, but perhaps the rule can be stated more explicitly and in greater detail: When you roll from a Roth 401(k) account to a Roth IRA, contrary to what you might have expected, at least for the portion of the Roth IRA consisting of the rollover, there is no carry over or "tacking" of the portion of the 5-year holding period already satisfied in the Roth 401(k) to the Roth IRA. Rather, any new Roth IRA, even one that receives a rollover from a Roth 401(k), starts at zero years on its own 5-year holding period, and the money coming from the Roth 401(k) generally loses its own holding period history and takes on the holding period history of the Roth IRA you're rolling to. Depending on when the Roth IRA was established relative to the first dollars into the Roth 401(k), could help you or hurt you. So if you roll from a Roth 401(k) account to a Roth IRA that was already up and running for a while (even if much smaller than the 401(k) account you are rolling in, or even minimal), then the Roth 401(k) money will take on the holding period of the Roth IRA, even if more of the 5-year period was satisfied in the Roth IRA than in the Roth 401(k) account. Conversely, if you roll funds from a Roth 401(k) that had satisfied the holding period to a brand new Roth IRA, you have to complete a brand new 5-year holding period under the Roth IRA in order for distributions from the IRA to have the Roth benefit of being not includible in gross income. (Of course the portion of any distribution from the Roth IRA that consisted of the nondeductible contributions to the Roth 401(k) would not be includible in your gross income, since would be a recovery of after-tax basis.) But note that there is a "twist" if, as you say is your case, you already satisfied the 5-year holding period in the Roth 401(k) account. In that case, because the distribution from the Roth 401(k) account was 100% nontaxable when you rolled it over, it's all after-tax "basis" in the Roth IRA, and only the post-rollover earnings on that amount would be subject to tax if you withdrew from the Roth IRA before the Roth IRA had itself satisfied the 5-year holding period. See Treas. Reg. 1.408A-10, Q&A-4, Examples 1, 2, and 3.

ESOP Guy is right, there is always an estate for purposes of the deceased's property passing to someone. Every state has provisions for that in its probate code. And ESOP Guy's suggests for sleuthing out who the heirs might be are excellent. I would not suggest reallocating, however. If you can identify the beneficiaries, you can use the missing beneficiary component of the PBGC's missing participant program if you are unable to find them. BTW, you say that the plan was notified of the death in 2015. Who notified of the death? Is there a letter in the file? That might of course provide a clue if there is.

Legally speaking it is my understanding there is always an estate. They just happen once you die- your stuff enters your estate regardless if there was a plan or not. A plan just defines better what an estate looks like. That might not help much if you can't find anyone who can do something with the estate. You are most likely going to need the plan lawyer to tell you what to do. I would at least start by making sure the plan says document what has done to find an heir. Try outside of the box thinking. You would be shocked how many times we made a payment because we found an obituary that named the church the funeral service happened at. So we called the clergy to ask if they knew how to contract any family members of the deceased. Most people hold a funeral at church do so at the one they attended regularly so the clergy knows the family. Most obits name all the surviving family members also. Most are online. You MIGHT be able to defend a forfeiture and reallocation if you can document a very good search but I would want the plan lawyer to make the ruling.

If you have the 401k Answer Book there is a great table showing various compensation definitions (W-2, 3401a, 415) inclusions, exclusions and permitted safe harbor exclusions (i.e., fringe benefits). This may have been pulled from an IRS website, so you might find there as well. NQ options, Section 83 elections et al are included in W-2 and not noted as among the 414(s) safe harbor exclusions. A lot of our public clients that have stock based compensation - options and restricted stock - specifically exclude stock-related income from their compensation definitions in their plan documents (many, but not all, are IDP rather than VS) which further leads me to opine such is not a fringe benefit in the statutory sense. However, if the plan (AA and/or BPD) simply say "fringe benefits" without any further clarification or code reference, then maybe the Plan Administrator makes an interpretation of a vague provision and takes the position that these are fringe benefits and excluded, which may be defensible if consistently applied and primarily (if not exclusively) affecting HCEs. Then for clarity, add specifically to the next restatement.

Yeah I think that works. In that case you don't even need the parent to be common law employer. That's not realistic anyway since the sub will almost certainly be directing and controlling the duties of those workers. It would just be like any outside staffing firm arrangement (or PEO). In all those situations, the worksite employer is generally always going to be the common law employer. But as long as the staffing firm is the employer of record, we don't have an issue. It's still a single employer plan. Just don't forget to follow the ACA employer mandate rules to ensure the sub is treated as having offered coverage through the parent: https://www.theabdteam.com/blog/aca-employer-mandate-and-outside-staffing-firms-2/

Annual additions 415 deadline 15th day of the 10th month. IRC Sec. 1.415(c)-1(b)(6)(i)(B).

BG5150--we're addressing the 415 limitation, which I believe is $58,000. The $43,000 is not a contribution so not subject to the 25% cap. It is a "forfeiture reallocation or just an internal allocation, regarding less, the annual addition limit is $15,000 401k + $43,000 allocation=$58,000.

Agreed. Make sure the Plan Document is in order as to the new Plan Sponsor and update the SPD.

First. I am not an attorney nor am I giving legal advice. It is my understanding, enrolled or not, paid or not, an individual knowingly preparing a false return may be violating federal law and subject to federal prosecution and ensuing penalties. A very experience and pragmatic seasoned actuary told me many times do not make the client's problem your problem.

I agree with Jakyasar. The allocation from the QRP goes against the 415 limit but but doesn't effect the deductible limit or the sole-proprietor's comp as that is all money that was deducted in prior years. While not 100% analogous I like to think of the QRP allocation similar to a reallocated forfeiture.

Why do you think you can have unallocated employer money in a 401(k) plan? Whatever they are they sure sound like ER contributions that need to be reported as such on the 5500. Now the question is: Has the plan handled them properly in terms of allocating them?

You can get a bond with retroactive coverage. I know Colonial Surety does them, not sure about other providers

Are they trying to take full advantage of the transitional period? Doesn't sound like it if they are contemplating merging in the middle of 2022. Why not have Company B adopt Company A's Plan for new contributions effective 1/1/2022, simultaneously amending Company A's Plan to relax eligibility to 3 months. The asset transfer/merger can happen in Q1 2022 (or later).

Last year, they sent out notices for pre 2020 plan years using the post 2019 penalty. This was fixed at the time, but may back again. It is not that uncommon to have wrong dates on these notices, so could be either really. Agree with above, call the IRS (with a POA so you don't spend 3 hours on hold just to have them say I cant talk to without a POA)

Run, run for your life. You will believe in that solution right after your firm bears liability when you could have scampered away. At the very least, go in with an ERISA attorney so your firm can say that the attorney was calling the shots. If you can't find an attorney who is willing, what does that tell you? It has been a few days since I've read the new EPCRS but at some point no later than 1/1/2022 the IRS will allow an anonymous conference call to discuss alternatives. I forget the precise parameters but what do you have to lose if you present your alternative as a take it or leave it concept? If it is that important to you then offer to eat the EPCRS filing fee.