Is a DB plan "required" to offer "non-spouse" beneficiary distribution option (e.g. 50% J&S) or is it discretionary?

Thanks.

403 has immediate eligibility for deferral purposes, but a 2 year waiting period for match. Let's say 125 are eligibile to defer but only 100 are eligible to receive a match at plan year end. Would an audit be required? My thinking is if the plan only had employee deferrals it would not be subject to ERISA, therefore no audit requirements. Thanks.

A terminated participant in one of the Plans I manage, recently received a 'Notice of Levy' from the State of Massachusetts. I didn't think States could levy Qualified Retirement Plans. Anyone have any experience with this? If this is allowed, are there any exceptions?

If there is a parent company A that owns 100% of the stock of B and where B then owns 100% of the stock of C, it is clear that A,B and C are all members of the same control group as a chain of parent-subsidiaries. If there is a reorganization where the stock of C is distributed out to the 40 shareholders of A (I think this is referred to as a split-off?), at the end of the transaction you will have A still owned by the same 40 shareholders and C will be owned individually by the same 40 shareholders. I believe that this would be considered a mere change in form with no withdrawal liability trigger. Am I correct in my belief that A and C will not be members of the same control group after the reorganization since they are no longer parent-subsidiaries and are not a brother-sister group since (assuming this is correct) 5 of the 40 shareholders (even assuming the application of the attribution rules) do not own at least 80% of A or C? Thus, after the reorganization C will not be potentially liable for A's future withdrawal liability? I understand that a pension fund may argue that the transaction has a principal purpose to evade or avoid liability. Does the exclusion of certain interests in determining brother-sister groups apply under Regulation 1.414©-3© so that if any of the 40 shareholders of A and C are employees of either A or C and their stock is subject to restriction on the employee's right to dispose of the stock which run in favor of A or C (assuming that the same 5 or fewer shareholders own at least 50% of A and C)? If one of the shareholders of A and C is not a person (for example, is a corporation) is that interest likewise excluded in making the brother-sister determination. Thanks for your help, it has been a while since a had to dive so deeply into the control group rules.

I have more medical expenses than my budget can handle and I'm considering taking a hardship withdrawal from my 401k. For tax purposes, would it be possible to deposit the money directly into my HSA? I haven't found anything online that says yes or no either way.

BofA took out a $50 fee from the funds in my Roth IRA when I had it transferred to a Vanguard Roth IRA. I called BofA as they did not tell me beforehand they would be doing that (in 3 phone calls to them to go over the procedure beforehand, I had asked them if there were any fees, to which they said no.) BofA is refunding the whole amount into my checking account as my Roth with them is already closed.

My question is this, does the IRS look at that $50 as a dispersment of funds? Does BofA report it to them? Do I have to deposit the $50 from my checking into the Vanguard Roth IRA or can I just let it be?

Thank you.

The proposed regulations on the employer shared responsibility clarify that employers must cover the dependents (i.e., children to age 26 but not spouses) of FT employees. But the penalties under both 4980H(a) and (b) only apply to the extent that the employer receives a Section 1411 Certification that a FT employee obtains a subsidy/credit for obtaining coverage on the Exchange.

Despite the coverage mandate, it is still not clear to me that there is any penalty if an employer provides affordable coverage to all its FT employees but not to their dependents because no FT is eligible for coverage on the Exchange.

What am I missing?

Are the following correct:

Employers have to count union employees when determining their responsibilities/penalties under Obamacare?

The union H&W plan has to provide minimum health benfits, have 60% minimum actuarial value and be affordable to enable the employer to avoid penalties?

Thanks

Plan has 3 NHCE's:

1 Is Otherwise excludable and gets only Safe Harbor 3%

1 is a terminated non-highly getting only the gwm

1 is a full-time active NHCE getting enough PS to pass testing.

How do I apply the limitaiton on the number of allocation groups? If 3 NHCE's the limit is 2; if 2 NHCE's, the limit is 1 rate. But should providing the GWM be counted as an allocation rate? Should the Otherwise Excludable participant (whom my document permits disaggregating for testing) be considered an allocation rate?

Good Afternoon,

Our plan has a historical frozen 401(k) that allows for loans and a currently active 403(b). We became a non-profit some years back.

My questions is this - If a person takes a $50,000 loan on the 403(b), should they then be able to take an additional $50,000 loan on the frozen 401(k)?

It seems our recordkeeper's system allows for this, and my understanding is $50,000 was the maximum loan between all employer's plans, and not by themselves. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

.

I have a participant who wants to start taking a monthly distribution from his 401k to cover his RMD for 2013. The participant is not 70.5 until July. Is their any issue with starting the RMD earlier than 70.5 or no because he will be 70.5 during the plan year?

Is some of the interest on deemed loan taxable when account is all paid out? I think interest is still accumulated on the loan after it is deemed. Am I right on this?

If a loan plus interest was $20,000 when deemed, then Taxes were paid on $20,000. If the loan "grows" to $25,000 by the time the Participant retires and the account is paid out, will taxes have to be paid on the other $5,000?

I have a client who owns an insurance policy for an employee and wants the 401(k) plan to take possesion of the policy. Is this allowable (assuming the plan allows for insurance)?

What would need to be done if this is even allowable? What steps must be taken to insure compliance?

Does anyone know if a Model Annual Funding Notice that considers additional disclosures for MAP-21 is forthcoming??

Also, it looks like one of the additional disclosures is the minimum required contribution under MAP-21 and pre-MAP-21 provisions. For plans on MAP-21 does that mean that a pre-MAP-21 faux psuedo funding standard account will need to be kept from year to year for AFN purposes??

Thanks.

New plan with a past service liability and accelerated payment provision effective 1/1/2012, adopted 12/30/2012. No 436 contribution being made.

When is the 101(j) Notice due - looks like 30 days from 12/30/2012. Anybody disagree?

the plan document defines pay as W-2 less

All fringe benefits, expense reimbursements, deferred compensation, and

welfare benefits are excluded

The company allows active employees to cash out unsused paid time off.

They consider this a fringe benefit and want to exclude from plan pay.

Is this correct?

They also have a program where others can donate PTO to others and they also consider this a fringe benefit and not plan pay to the recipient of the PTO.

I am having a hard time finding guidance. Any comments would be greatly appreciated

The regs say a payment will still be treated as being paid on the designated payment date if paid the later of (1) the end of the year of the designated payment date, or (2) the 15th day of the 3rd month following the payment date.

Focusing on (2) above, say a payment is due 12/31/2012. Payment is still treated as paid on the payment date if paid on, say, 2/5/2013.

Question: Should this be treated as taxable income on 12/31/2012 (the date the payment is treated as being paid under 409A) or on 2/5/2013 (the date actually paid)?

I attended a seminar quite some time ago on 403(b) plans and recall the speaker saying that if the employer (in this case a college) maintains an ERISA and a non-ERISA plan, it is likely that the non-ERISA plan will automatically be subject to ERISA due to the existence of the ERISA plan. However, it didn't sound at the time like this was a rule written in stone. It was phrased similar to "it's been speculated that....." In the meantime, the plan has continued operating as a non-ERISA plan. Is there some definitive source that would tell me if indeed the presence of the ERISA plan has "tainted" the other plan and caused it to inadvertently become an ERISA plan? I hesitate to think about the can of worms this might open, such as having to file several years' worth of 5500s, etc.

Members take draws out during the course of the year, can they defer on those draws or wait until after the close of the plan year to defer pending preparation of their k-1's or both?

I've been looking through the BNA portfolio on ESOPs to see if there's any mention about an ESOP owning life insurance on a Key EE, but so far no luck. Does anyone have any experience with this?