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As David said in so many words, look up the obituary!

From the phrasing of the original question, "we" appears to be a TPA (or something similar). As @Peter Gulia states, your service agreement will be the first place to start. He also (correctly) implies that the action of the TPA may be guided by its own attorney, who will also pay attention to the comments/advice from the plan's attorney. Those are not the same person. I would never expect to "go to the wake and see the deceased." (My Dad was cremated.) One other way to consider "proof of death" might be whether there is a published obituary. (Sorry, I don't know if fraudulent obits are a thing.)

It's listed as 2024 Applicable, 2025 Applicable, etc., with a separate table for each year.

timely article Here's a timely article that might address some of those questions. (No affiliation, just came across my screen earlier this week.)

The right participant search firm can do a "death audit". They are checking against the Social Security Administration record of SSNs that have been reported as the person is deceased. I just couldn't tell you how quickly it is updated. As noted in an earlier comment either funeral directors or corners have to report deaths to the SSA so they know to declare the SSN no longer active and if they are paying benefits to stop

These are the ones listed in the reg (formatted to be easier to read):

yeah, go to Data Entry -> Tables -> Actuarial -> Annuities Enter your interest rate, your mortality table, and the age range you want and it'll give you a list, looks like this:

Has the spouse evaluated, applying Internal Revenue Code § 414 as amended by SECURE 2022 § 315, whether her business might not be a part of the same employer as her husband’s business? And, if so, might not have been a part of the same employer for plan years that began after December 31, 2023?

I don't think you're missing anything. The IRS could always audit and find it, but it would be quite difficult because (as you said) there is no W-2 reporting of the health FSA. In theory it would have to involve review of paystubs or interaction with the employer to confirm. But as noted above, there are many aspects like this in tax liability where it would be difficult to discover the issue. A rolling 6% excise tax on the ineligible HSA contributions that could apply is also no joke.

No, that's a common plan design structure I've seen.

Offering health coverage to your employees and their standard dependents is of course a single employer plan. But at what point does the offering become a MEWA when offering to anyone else? For example, would it still be a single employer plan if it covered employee's neighbors? At some point there's line in the sand, we just don't know exactly where it is. For example, it's generally understood that offering coverage to a independent contractors would create a MEWA because they are not employees/dependents of the company. Is it really any different when covering an unrelated surrogate? It's hard to say. More discussion if you're interested: https://www.newfront.com/blog/addressing-employee-health-plan-exception-requests1 Here's the main cite: ERISA §3(40): (40) (A) The term “multiple employer welfare arrangement” means an employee welfare benefit plan, or any other arrangement (other than an employee welfare benefit plan), which is established or maintained for the purpose of offering or providing any benefit described in paragraph (1) to the employees of two or more employers (including one or more self-employed individuals), or to their beneficiaries... Here's a helpful reference: https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/events/employee_benefits/technicalsessions/2005_dol.pdf A follow-up question was asked regarding an arrangement offering or providing health benefits maintained by one employer and covering common law employees of the employer and several independent contractors. DoL staff indicated that they would generally read the reference to self-employed individuals in section 3(40) as resulting in such arrangements being MEWAs.

YES! So I've had ERPA for a while, #373, and had successfully renewed twice before w/o any issue. The second time was w/o a PTIN as I let mine lapse when they were no longer required. My latest renewal in 2024 on my 21-23 cycle hit the same problem, all of a sudden they were looking at credits tied to PTINs (which they no longer required!). I too had accumulated a majority of credits through ASPPA and ASEA on-demand webcasts which stated they provided ERPA credit. However, the completion certificates that were issued by the website upon passing the quiz were not sufficient for ERPA documentation. I provided copies of all those non-compliant certificates to ASPPA customer service (I think) requesting the IRS program number. They re-issued ERPA compliant certificates to me for all those 2021-2023 sessions. There was one that they found did not count for ERPA. Certificates were signed by Chris DeGrassi, Chief of Retirement Education - all on 7/18/2024. Whoever told you they were not ERPA eligible probably just didn't want to be bothered. You only mentioned 2021 as an issue? ASPPA gave me 2021-2023, so I don't know how 2021 becomes an issue now. I was told at the time that they were rectifying their website/process to "fix" this deficiency but looking at later 2024 sessions (under someone else's signature) the certificates are the old version. My guess is they figure there aren't enough ERPAs out there and no new ones possible, so why bother with the time and expense for a fix. I think IRS would have accepted non-ERPA certificates and an itemized list of sessions with their IRS program numbers, but ASPPA provided compliant certificates. If you can't get satisfaction from ASPPA for 2021, send me an email with the courses you took in 2021 and if I took any of the same I can give you the IRS program numbers that were on my certificates. Another IRS issue I encountered was that you needed 66 non-ethics credits and they only considered 6 ethics credits at 2 per year - so anything beyond that didn't count and was wasted credit, even though neither Circular 230 nor the 8554-EP form or instructions stated such. Since I had 72 with 7 or 8 ethics credits I had to take a course in 2024 to fulfill my 21-23 renewal requirement. After all that, and being told I was renewed (which I've kept the email as proof), I never received my updated card in the mail, which supposedly they mailed out three times and verified the correct address. The same thing happened for my prior renewal, no card received in the mail, including a supposed second attempt then. I gave up on getting a new card, keep using my ERPA number and haven't had any issues in that regard. My next renewal comes up in 2027 and probably won't even bother. Anyway, the last two issues are just me venting. The conspiracy theorist in me thinks it's a concerted effort to hasten the elimination of the ERPA designation. Good luck and I'll help you if I can.

Off the wall question: How quickly can/will the medical bills become due after the accident? Within that 12-week window?

Tom, OP said a 1099 was issued. If you did indeed only miss one payment, then almost certainly the the loan should not have been defaulted and the 1099 was issued in error. There are a few possibilities, all of them to do with incompetence. Could have been your payroll department didn't restart the actual deposits, or deposited to the wrong person or who knows what. Just be prepared for a long slog through the bureaucracy and don't give in if you are sure you are right. Unfortunately we do get some posts from participants who are convinced that something happened when it really didn't, so be 100% sure your paystubs are showing the loan payments. First step is comparing them to your 401(k) account statements.