How long is everyone keeping plan records?

I know it's the ER's ultimate responsibility- but we know how that goes.

I think we need to keep all years on plans that we still have, but on plans that have left our

services - what do we need to keep?

I think we would at a minimum have to keep a copy of the plan documents - Prototype we sponsored.

One of my bosses thinks we should just box everything up and give it to the client when they leave.

I, however disagree and need to give him more information on why we need to keep it. I guess it's becoming a storage issue.

Just wondered what others are doing. We are now scanning stuff, but didn't in the past. I don't want to spend the time scanning stuff we dont' need.

Thanks

Pat

We have a two-participant profit sharing plan with discretionary contributions. One participant has a life insurance policy. Is it possible for the plan to pay the premium in a year where they don't make a p/s contribution? Logic tells me no..or at least that the contribution needs to be sufficient to cover the premium. The participant without a premium should receive an allocation also.

How would it work if the premium is paid for with "aged" money? For 5500 reporting purposes, would the insurance premium be shown as a transfer from the other investment account to the life insurance policy?

I'm not finding any guidance to support my thoughts.

Thanks.

The plan excludes Union Employees. One of the 5.5% owners is a union employee and he was allowed to defer into this plan. Is this the same issue as if any HCE had been allowed to participate in violation of plan provisions? Does the fact that a union plan is involved for all of the other union employees make a difference in how this is corrected? I have never seen a situation like this.

Would appreciate comments on the following:

Facts:

Calendar year DB Plan frozen in 2007

Plan pays lump sums

FT 1/1/2011=900,000

Assets 1/1/2011=675,000

FSCOB=PFB=0

2011 MRC=50,000

2011 Effective Rate=5%

2010 AFTAP=100% (e.g., 2011 quarterlies not required)

2011 AFTAP certified in April 2011 as 75% and restriction notice provided to participants

Plan Sponsor wants to reopen plan effective 1/1/2011 and adopts amendment 6/1/2011

FT will increase from 900,000 to 1,000,000 and TNC will increase from 0 to 40,000.

On December 31, 2011, Plan Sponsor makes contribution of 150,000.

Conclusion: To make amendment effective, Plan Sponsor must contribute the equivalent

(a) 45,000 to bring AFTAP to 80%

(b) 40,000 for the TNC

Discounted value of contribution is 142,857. Excess contribution is

142,857-50,000-45,000-40,000=7,857

Participant terminates employment on 10/1/2011. Benefit is the frozen benefit and

lump sum restrictions apply because amendment is not effectively in place until 12/31/2011

after 436 contribution is made.

EA will recertify AFTAP as of 12/31/2011 as 80% and participants will be notified that

restrictions have been removed.

Has anyone worked with Valic or AXA and had to import a download of their participant recordkeeping data into Relius? If so, was the process easy, tricky or difficult.

Thanks in advance.

A CB/PS combo plan that uses a carveout is not passing 401(a)(26) due to a number of terminations during the year (all above 500 hours). I am preparing a corrective amendment adding 3 particpants for the plan year to bring DB participation up to 40% of nonexcludables. The 3 participants that the sponsor wants to include are all HCE's. After the amendment, the plan will pass 401(a)(26), 410(b) and 401(a)(26), but I am just leary about benefitting HCE's only in the corrective. Is this allowed?

I've reviewed the 2010 PBGC Premium Payment Instructions document. I can't find examples of how one would exactly determine the participant count date for the spun off plan in a mid-year spinoff. In the Premium Payment Instructions, there is language that "premium proration is not available for overlapping premium payments resulting from spinoff". I've also looked at some PP presentations by Keightley & Ashner LLP...one dated October 21, 2007 from a presentation at the ASPPA Annual Conference, one dated october 28, 2008 at the Annual Meeting of the Conference of Consulting Actuaries and one dated June 16, 2010 at the Great Lakes Benefit Conference. All of these presentations indicate that there are duplicate premiums in all mid-year spinoffs.

While realizing that guidance could change for a 2012 spinoff, if we assume 1) the guidance for 2012 remains the same as 2010, 2) the pre-spinoff plan is a large plan and both that plan and the "spinco/spunoff" company plan are large plans post spinoff and the spinoff occurs after the fixed-rate premium filing is made for 2012 and before the Comprehensive filing is made for 2012, no VRP or other premium (other than the fixed-rate premium) is due from any of the plans, then how would the participant counts be determined for the 2012 post-spinoff filings.

I work better with illustrations...so using hypothetical participant counts..see if the below is correct and advise as to the premium filing (and participant count) of the spun-off plan for 2012. Any guidance/thoughts (including citing specific PBGC guidance) would be helpful.

The 2012 pre-spinoff plan estimated participant count is 46,000. This is the participant count as of the last day of the plan year preceding the Premium Payment Year..thus in this case the estimated count at 12-31-11. This is the count used for the 2012 fixed rate filing for that plan.

For the 2012 post-spinoff ongoing plan (same ongoing plan with the same employer as per the immediately preceding paragraph) Comprehensive filing.... assuming that the estimated participant count and the final participant count are the same, then 46,000 is used as the final participant count for that plan. No additional premium is due from that plan from that paid in the fixed rate filing.

2012 post-spin off spinco/spunoff plan's "only?" 2012 filing...what would the participant count be (and when measured) assuming say only 7,500 participants

came from the pre-spin off plan to the plan created by the spinoff (spinco's plan).

Is the reference to duplicate premiums in the law firm presentations (which is consistent with "what I have heard) tied to the participant count/fixed rate filings?

Thanks so much. Spinoffs are "new" for me.

I have a client who is/was a 50 – 50 shareholder in a corporation. The corporation went into receivership and has completely withdrawn from the Central States Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Fund. The pension fund has previously sent 4219(a) information requests to the receiver, requesting information about the company, but now the pension fund is requesting personal information from my client, including a request for copies of his personal income tax returns.

I don’t do much work with multiemployer plans, but can a shareholder be compelled to respond and provide this type of personal information under ERISA 4219(a)? Any assistance would be appreciated. Thank you.

7/1/10 AFTAP is 85%, no 2011 certification so at 10/1/11 the 2011 presumed AFTAP is 75%, 50% restrictions apply. Prior to October 30, 2011 AFTAP is certified to at least 80%. Must the 436 participant notice still be provided?? Thanks.

The ABC Plan has a participant contributing to the plan who lives in Puerto Rico. (The client does not have a Puerto Rico plan). The PR resident has contributed $16,500 year to date. The client contacted me to determine if this participant should only have contributed the maximum based on the Puerto Rico limits or if the participant can contribute the 402g limit. The plan document does not address this or exclude this participant from eligibility.

I have two questions:

1) Does the plan need to be dually qualified to let a resident of Puerto Rico contribute?

2) If he can contribute, is he subject to the PR limits?

We're terminating a 401(k), everyone has been paid out except 1 guy with about $2,000 in the plan. We've talked to the guy, sent him election forms on numerous occassions, and had the business owner call him, but he won't budge. The Plan Document does not include provisions for force outs. We want to file a Final 5500 but cannot until we get this huy paid out. What can we do?

Thank You!

I own a small business.( S corporation)

I have 25 employees. 1/2 of the employees have medicaid or a goverment health plan.

I want to cover only the employees that do not have any health coverage?.

1. Can I have a health insurance plan that covers employees under the age of 65. If they are 65 or older they have medicaid.

Would this be discrimantory?

2. Can I have a cafeteria plan for my employees if my business is an S corporation?

Hello everyone!

A client has a deferred compensation plan with grandfathered benefits. There are no haircut provisions in the plan. A participant in the plan has a lump sum deferral due to him on January 1, 2014 (his fixed retirement date), that he wants to accelerate to 2012, the year in which certain other deferrals are set to begin paying out in installments.

As it stands, I don't see any way that this acceleration would be permissible. A formal amendment allowing haircuts would be a material modification for 409A and would lose grandfathered status for the benefits.

However, what if the client just gave the participant a lump sum payment in 2012 with a 10-20 percent haircut? Is this allowed? Do we run afoul of 409A? If anyone can assist or perhaps point me to any IRS position on this subject, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you!

Hello everyone!

A client has a deferred compensation plan with grandfathered benefits. There are no haircut provisions in the plan. A participant in the plan has a lump sum deferral due to him on January 1, 2014 (his fixed retirement date), that he wants to accelerate to 2012, the year in which certain other deferrals are set to begin paying out in installments.

As it stands, I don't see any way that this acceleration would be permissible. A formal amendment allowing haircuts would be a material modification for 409A and would lose grandfathered status for the benefits.

However, what if the client just gave the participant a lump sum payment in 2012 with a 10-20 percent haircut? Is this allowed? Do we run afoul of 409A? If anyone can assist or perhaps point me to any IRS position on this subject, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you!

Plan A has a June 30 year-end. On December 31st, Plan A is merged into Plan B which has a December 31st year-end. All of the existing participant accounts in Plan A are transferred to Plan B.

Assuming that Plan B's testing for the year ended December 31st will not include the newly-added participants from Plan A, is non-discrimination testing for Plan A required for the six months ended December 31st?

And, if possible can you provide me with a citation to support your answer?

We have had E & O insurance for almost 20 years and have never had a claim. Hopefully we never will.

Isn't E & O insurance to cover damages resulting from an error and/or omission? The biggest exposure for a TPA firm is a plan disqualification as the result of a mistake. Is that not what it is for?

In reading our current policy and the prior policy, the exclusions section seems to exclude coverage for damages resulting in any way from penalties initiated by the IRS.

Just wondering if anyone else has run into this.

Thanks.

I would love to see two new sections. What labeled something like "Disclosures Covered Service Providers under 408(b)(2)

and the other" Participant Fee disclosures under 404(a)

I am trying to put down on paper how to implement these and it ain't easy!

If the distribution, QDRO, and loan fees are the only fees charged to Participant, am I correct in thinking that I should:

1. Send that page of the SPD annually?

2. Send statement showing other fees actually charged quarterly?

3. When account is closed, the Participant does not currently get a "final" statement showing an ending balance = 0. Do I have to start sending this "zero balance" statement showing fee?

Effective July 15, 2011, as part of New York's new hire reporting requirements, New York employers must report whether health insurance benefits are available to dependents, and if so the date the employee qualifies for benefits. Multi-state employers may continue reporting to their designated state as long as such reporting includes New York's required information.

While the new law allows for multi-state employers to continue reporting to their designated state, I am finding that states are not modifying their reporting format to accomodate this new information.

My question: How are other multi-state employers reporting this information?

One solution that I have is for multi-state employers to report information for New York employees directly to New York using its on-line reporting system.

Any comments or suggestions are much appreciated.

Independent consulting agreement (subject to 409A e.g., independent contractor does not meet any exclusion requirements) provides for a monthly compensation amount to be paid on the fist day of each month during the 10-year term of the agreement.

Even though the agreement creates an enforceable right to compensation paid in a later year (and does not subject the compensation to any substantial risk of forfeiture) does not the "payable on the first of the month" requirement put the arrangement within the short term deferral rule?

Same example as above, however the compensation amount is increased by $25,000 per year, payable monthly, provided certain company-wide annual sales goals are met. Agreement is silent on when it is determined that the sales goals are determined to have been satisfied each year. Under these provisions, short term deferral rule is not met.

Any comments, rebuttals or thoughts appreciated.