In the following article, it appears that the DOL is ignoring the good work that many pension auditors are doing.

http://www.bna.com/overreliance-limitedsco...s-n12884909164/

Small frozen DB plan provides a death benefit equal to the present value of the accrued benefit. Actuarial equivalence definition includes pre retirement mortality.

Participant defers payment past NRD. Is the deferred benefit from NRA to a later age (assume 68) required to be increased with mortality (using D's)? Document does not specify and past practice was no since there is no forfeiture on death.

I know there is past discussion of this, I have read it. The key word is required.

FWIW, I think the IRS clearly says no for purposes of 415 adjustments.

Opinions please.

A company sponsors:

1. 401k with discretionary match plan

2. new profit sharing plan

3. new db plan

required aggregation group

401k passes discrimination on its own

db and ps plans combined and cross tested to pass discrimination.

say it is a TH group and thus the 401k plan provides TH to those only in 401k plan.

However, since 401k plan not being tested with other plans for non discrimination should they provide gateway?

I dont think so.

thanks

Has anyone heard of a rollover from an FSA to an HSA that does NOT have to follow the rule of: the lesser of the balance on September 21, 2006 or current plan year end balance?

Client is saying the 2006 requirement was done away with.

The 2011 Publication 969 still contains that requirement.

Thanks.

Plan and trust agreement provide that unless otherwise required by law, trustee has voting and tender rights with respect to qualifying employer securities in the plan. I see nothing in ERISA or the Code that would require a pass through vote on whether 401(k) plan should sell qualifying employer securities of a public company to an independent buyer.

Any thoughts?

I have been trying to locate a good treatise or some regulatory guidance regarding the process for voting employer securities of a public company (held in a 401(k) plan) in the context of a stock sale. It is clear that the trustee is subject to ERISA fiduciary standards in voting and tendering stock held in the plan, but I am wondering if there is a source discussing the potential securities law issues (including any procedural issues). Also, it appears to me that although not specifically required, an independent trustee is advisable if trustee is part of company management?

An employer has both a general purpose FSA and a limited purpose FSA. We just got an email from the employer saying that an employee has had a status change and is moving from the copay plan to the HDHP plan. She wants to change her general purpose FSA to a limited FSA and start making contributions into the HSA instead.

Has anyone ever heard of anything like that?

I have not.

Thanks.

I have a 401k plan with the owner and spouse only in the plan. Both are over age 70.5 and both have separate account balances and have been taken out RMD's the past few years. In 2012 the spouse passed away. There were no distributions taken out prior to her death and both still have a balance in the plan. Who should the 2012 RMD for the spouse be payable too?

I am working on a takeover plan that our firm did a new EGTRRa document for last year (not sure why, I did not handle this myself).

It appears that the plan has a different service requirement for entry into the plan for Profit Sharing than it does for deferrals (regular and Roth) and match.

For deferrals, Roth & Match (which they apparently no longer do the discretionary match but did at some point in the past) you need to be 21 and have 3 months of service. you will get in on the 1st of the month following the eligibility requirement fullfillment. For proift sharing however, you need to be there for a year; entry dates are 1/1 and 7/1. They use the elapsed time for hours.

Plan has a safe harbor non-elective. As I read the Datair document that was done last year, if you are elig for deferrals, you are elig for safe harbor. I am being told that the old EGTRRA document had the safe harbor elig lumped in with the profit sharing ("It's an employer contribution").

I haven't had a plan with mis-matched entry requirements in a LONG time; the last plan I had like this did NOT have safe harbor.

What are your thoughts? Can you have a longer wait period for the safe harbor like that?

The plan has three people who are not eligible for the profit sharing portion and it is top heavy. What the question boils down to is should that 3% they are getting be top heavy (vesting schedule) or safe harbor (no vesting schedule). The dollar amounts are the same. I think it should be safe harbor, but I am getting the T/H agrument from someone else.

my reading of the regulations says that there is no ongoing obligation for service providers to disclose compensation received from the plan. rather the obligation is initially upon entering into a new contract or the renewal or modification of an existing agreement. of course you have to disclosure under the regs for all existing arrangements. can someone confirm please>?

Can I use the short term deferral for one payment event, but not all payment events?

For example, I have two payment events, one of which is 409A compliant (Date Certain) and one of which is not (IPO Event). The payment is to be made the earlier of Date Certain or IPO Event.

If paid on Date Certain, it will be paid out over 36 months. If paid on IPO Event, it will be paid within 2 1/2 months following the end of the year. Can I use the short term deferral exception to cover the IPO Event even though the plan allows for payment after the 2 1/2 month period in the event the Date Certain comes first?

Can an employer, who employs only non-union employees, participate in a multiemployer plan under a participation or similar arrangement?

The employer currently employs both union and non-union employees. The smaller number of union employees want to decertify (i.e., get out of) the union, but the employer desparately wants to avoid withdrawal liability (because the estimated withdrawal liability amount is gigantic).

The IRM says that non-union individuals can participate in a multiemployer plan, but I have never seen a completely non-union entity participate in such a plan.

Assuming that the plan's trustees could otherwise be persuaded to let the employer continue to participate after the decertification, are there any legal impedements that would prohibit this? I am particularly curious about the plan no longer meeting the definition of a "multiemployer plan" since the employees of this employer represent over 1/3 of the active employees in the plan. Any cases or official guidance would be helpful. Thanks!

I am retiring next month and I would be getting a big amount, what would be the best option for investment, I was thinking of getting insurance but I dont know what would be the best policy for me. I live in Texas, Can anyone please guide me in getting insurance. Thanks in advance!!!!

I have an insurance underwriter who insists that I must list the DB plan itself as beneficiary in a policy owned by the DB plan. Is she correct, or can I list the participant (insured)'s spouse as beneficiary instead?

A large 403(b) Plan with more than 200 participants - but only 50 with account balances is frozen in 2012 (for eligibility and contributions). For the Plan Year beginning 01/01/2013, would the participant count be limited to the participants with account balances because the others are no longer earning or retaining credited service?

I hope some one can help me. We were using Reiuls to do some recordkeeping and ADP/ACP testing. The Relius Server's hard drive died and we cancelled the relius a couple of years ago because it was costly. I ask Relius for a quote on how much it would cost to help us get the server up and running. They quoted 2 prices and they were basically highway robbery and one option was to sign a 12 month agreement witrh them.

Ccan someone help us out? The data was backed up but we don;t know how to get the server up and running again. Is there a way to use Relius as a stand alone and import the back up data from the server?

We were using Relius 11.1.

Thank you

Jon

Not sure whether this is the appropriate forum for this question, but what employee benefit related documentation should or must be included in an employee's file? How long should the employee benefit documentation be retained in the employee's file?

The short term deferral exception under 409A applies separately to each payment. We have a plan that provides for one of two payments upon the earliest of: 1) an IPO, within the short term period, OR 2) separation from service.

The first payment event is not compliant with 409A, but is paid within the short term deferral period. The second payment is compliant with 409A, but is not within the short term deferral period. There is a separate calculation for each payment.

Does this comply with 409A? Does the first payment satisfy the short term deferral exception, or does the fact the plan also allows a non-short term payment upon separation ruin the entire plan?

A plan with a lump sum provision becomes restricted and the participant wants to receive a lump sum benefit.

May the plan state that the lump sum election is irrevocable, so that when the plan becomes unrestricted the unpaid portion is then paid as a lump sum without any optional forms of benefit (including a QJSA) being offered?

If a company has a 401k plan and an ESOP the key employees should be the same between the two plans. What happens if the two plan documents have different definitions of the 415 compensation utilized for determining who is a key employee? The different definitions causes an employee to be a key based on the 415 compensation determination in the 401k plan and not a key based on the 415 compensation determination in the ESOP.

When a plan terminates and the forfeitures need to be allocated, do new participants get any part of the forfeiture? As new participants they just entered and have no salary deferral, profit sharing, or match. If the forfeitures are allocated to them, their only source of funds would be from the forfeiture amount. Would that make sense or should they be excluded all together?