Submitted Determination Package on January 31, 2009.

Received Determination Letter today.

Nearly three years.

Company has DB Plan and DC Plan, general tested in aggregate. DB plan covers only 2 owners. DC plan covers 4 NHCE staff. DB plan has 2 year wait/100% and DC plan has 1 year wait/6 yr graded vesting.

I think we may have a benefits, rights & features concern with respect to eligibility and/or vesting. Does anyone agree with me? On eligibility, vesting, or both?

Dog

Have a plan that terminated January 31, 2008. At that time, we prepared the termination minutes as well as a PPA Good Faith Amendment, Amendments regarding the NRA and Heinz Decision and the other Interim Amendmentd due at the time. We have just been informated that unbeknownst to us, the plan has not distributed it's assets as of yet but because the plan has still been active, do we have to do a full blown document restatement now for PPA even though we did the Good Faith Amendment and all the Interims?

Are there any amendments due before year-end for Corbel prototypes? I think I would have known, but I can't recall a year without any amendments...

I have a doctor client who is 1/3 owner in a MRI diagnostic clinic. The clinic ownes the diagnostic equipment that the doctor uses. The clinic has one employee who works strictly for the clinic and does not provide any services for the individual doctor's practices. The salary for the employee is paid by the clinic and the doctors do not pay any of the expenses of the clinic. What if anything would make this an affiliated service?

We administer a 401(k) plan (not safe harbor) where the profit sharing allocation is cross-tested (everyone is in a separate group) & the plan's eligiblity is age 21, 1 year of service, semi-annual entry. There is also a prevailing wage component to the plan but, of course, there is no age or service requirement to receive prevailing wage contributions. The owner has two sons: one is eligible for the 401(k) plan and participates & receives prevailing wage contributions, and the other (let's call him X) is not yet 21 so he isn't eligible to participate in the 401(k) plan. During the current plan year X began working prevailing wage jobs and received almost a 40% of pay prevailing wage contribution.

The client has requested a profit sharing illustration but I need some clarification on who and what to include when I'm running the proposed cross-tested allocation. It appears that:

1. I am including both profit sharing and prevailing wage contributions in the average benefits test (and also 401(k) deferrals in my average benefits percentage test)

2. It would appear that I need to include all employees that are eligible for the 401(k) plan, plus those employees not eligible for the 401(k) plan but that are prevailing wage employees, in the test. So I would include X (owner's son) which would appear to make it impossible for any sort of cross-tested profit sharing allocation to be non-discriminatory.

Are there any other testing options that would help in this situation, or is there a way to exclude X from the test (or maybe my understanding is incorrect and X shouldn't be in the test in the first place)? Any thoughts on this would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks!

I'm filing a PBGC Form 10 for missed contributions. I have been all over the PBGC website and the Form 10 instructions trying to determine whether or not there is a mandatory employee notice that needs to go out. Since I cannot find anything, I'm assuming there is no employee notice required. Can anyone confirm this?

On the IRS Website this morning is the newly released 2010 Form 8955-SSA.

Are we still allowed to file using paper? I tried clicking on instructions by got an error message "not available".

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

DPSRICH

PPACA limits the ability of plans to have annual limits on essential health benefits. Is that calculated on an aggregate basis (so, as long as plan doesn't exceed the annual limit for all essential health benefits, it is okay) or is it applied on a benefit-by benefit basis (so, for instance, a plan can't have a $xxx annual limit on occupational therapy, assuming OT is an essential health benefit)?

I haven't seen this discussed anywhere.

An association of employers, with membership compirsed of businessed in a metro area in a specific commercial enterprise, used to bargain for a single CBA covering union workers at any of the member organizations. Plan is a PSP/401(k). Now, each of the employers bargains for its own CBA with the union. Does the association continue to maintain a multiemployer plan for these individual employer CBAs covering union workers, or do we now have a multiple employer plan comprised of separate employers adopting the association's plan for just their CBA-covered employees?

I think that ERISA Section 3(37) & IRC Section 414(f) require that this type of an arrangement (effective after the enactment of MPPAA) be a multiemployer plan (not multiple employer). Anyone agree or disagree?

Been a while since I've encountered a similar situation and am just looking for confirmation (or condemnation!) that the following is "doable" -

Existing Profit Sharing Plan (calendar year plan year) wants to add a 401(k) arrangement yet this year. Definitely a "safe-harbor 401(k)" candidate, but obviously too late for SH for 2011 at this point.

So, for 2011 the Plan will adopt a "traditional" 401(k) arrangement effective December 1, 2011, using "prior year testing" with "deemed 3% deferrals" and "deemed 3% matching" for ADP/ACP purposes, allowing the HCE participants to be able to defer 5% of comp and receive a 100% match (i.e., also equal to 5% of comp) for the 2011 plan year.

Switch to "safe-harbor 401(k)" effective January 1, 2012.

Viable approach? Anything better?

Thanks for any and all replies.

Can a retirement plan recover the cost of filing an interpleader from a participant's account?

I typically specialize in priviate-sector plans and am aware of the dire consequences to an employer for being late in forwarding employee contributions (from salary deferrals) to a plan.

Now I'm trying to assess a late contribution issues for a school district 403(b) Plan and am hitting a dead end.

Since school plans are exempt from ERISA, is there a penalty/risk to the district for having been late for a couple of months (over the summer)? All contributions have now been properly forwarded to the vendor.

Since there's no Form 5500, they won't have to report the late contributions there.

Any authority that anyone knows about for the district having to make up lost earnings to participants? I suppose they could use the DFVC calculator to determine lost earnings, but am wondering as to whether there is potential enforcement on this point.

Any insignts welcome! Thanks.

When running a BRF test, can the test be disaggregated? (apply less than 21/1 YOS rule) Does it need to follow the same method as coverage & ADP/ACP? In other words, if the coverage & ADP/ACP test use the 'otherwise' excludable option, is that required in the BRF also? Or are they separate?

Thanks for your help!

If an employee separates from service and is subsequently rehired in the same year, can the employee or employer make election changes or is the employee locked into the previous election he/she made earlier in the year? Basically, does a separation from service cancel out an employee's previous elections? Any guidance on this issue is appreciated.

I feel I should know this but don't.

Company A sold all of its assets to Company B.

Company B hired all of Company A employees.

Company A has no more payroll and is terminating its safe harbor 401(k) plan prior to year end.

Does Company A still get safe harbor relief for the year or is it subject to testing?

I don't think my M/S Office password protection will cut it anymore. Mind sharing how you receive your emailed census data securely?

We have a 401(k) Plan that covers only highly compensated employees (there are no non-highly compensated employees). Is there any problem with offering a 200% match under the plan?

Can someone point me to the Code or Regulations that permits ESOP dividends to be taken and all distributions, other than hardship distributions prior to a hardship withdrawal for a plan that is following the non safe harbor criteria?

Does the form require original signatures for filing? Or is it acceptable to get the client to sign and scan/email or fax back to us for filing? I didn't see this addressed in the form instructions and when I called the IRA helpline they said it could take up to 30 days for a response....was hoping to have these done before then. Thoughts?