Hi all, Any suggestions on recurring emails to subscribe to as a replacement for the old benefitslink newsletter? I don't think i realized how much I relied on those to keep myself up to date until they disappeared! Appreciate any and all suggestions. Thanks!

I have a question to present as there is no clear answer in EPCRS. There was an asset sale in April (4/2/26) and the employees were hired/transferred to the newly formed company with new EIN of the buyer. I have finally received confirmation by legal counsel that the buyer did not agree to take over the sellers 401k plan after the sale. However,  the newly formed company continued to contribute to the plan of the seller after the sale closed - deferrals and match. What is the correction here? Distribute deferrals to the employees as 1099 income for 2026, but what about the match? Normally under EPCRS excess amounts attributable to match would be forfeited but the match was funded by an ineligible employer since there was an asset sale. Following that line of correction, the match would be forfeited, the plan terminated by the seller, and then there will be forfeitures to deal with. So after any plan expenses, lets say that forfeitures remain. Do they get reallocated - Ineligible match contributed after the 4/2 asset sale by an ineligible employer gets reallocated to the participants? Or, could this be viewed as a mistake of fact and return the match to the buyer? I have not had this come up before, can one of you M&A experts chime in maybe?

Thank you !!

for Employee Benefits Security Administration [EBSA] (DC)

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Is anyone seeing an uptick in IRS audits for the 2023 plan year?

for Loren D. Stark Company (Remote / NJ / NV / TX)

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for Pension Associates Inc (Remote / Stamford CT / Hybrid)

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Plan sponsor had a 401k plan and ESOP. Both plans were terminated and all plan assets were distributed. After the distributions took place the TPA informed us that there was a 415 failure and corrections (refunds and forfeitures) would need to take place. How is that handled when all of the plan assets have already been distributed and rolled over to IRA's?

Will J

In an equity transaction, the buyer  maintains both a 401(k) and an ESOP. Following the acquisition,  must the buyer credit the acquired employees' pre-closing service, previously recognized under the seller's 401(k), for purposes of eligibility and vesting in the buyer's ESOP?

Am I reading this right?

SECURE says that if I implement a PS-only plan today for a 2025 plan year, then there's no 5500 for 2025 because it's retroactive and I just check that box on the 2026 5500.  But if I was paranoid and had the document executed on December 31, 2025, then a 2025 Form 5500 would be required?

for CBIZ (North Canton OH / Independence OH / Phoenix AZ / Boca Raton FL / Atlanta GA / Fort Wayne IN / Kansas City MO / Saint Louis MO / Philadelphia PA / Nashville TN / Dallas TX / Houston TX / Jackson WI / Hybrid)

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for CBIZ (North Canton OH / Independence OH / Phoenix AZ / Boca Raton FL / Atlanta GA / Lewiston ID / Kansas City MO / Saint Louis MO / Philadelphia PA / Nashville TN / Dallas TX / Houston TX / Jackson WI / Hybrid)

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for CBIZ (North Canton OH / Hybrid)

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for AlphaStaffHCM (Remote / Fort Lauderdale FL / Hybrid)

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Trying to help an acquaintance find a cheap option for opening a 457b for a tiny quasi-government agency.  Anyone have any ideas?

Employee contributions were withheld on November 1, 2025.  Plan sponsor submitted the allocation breakdown to the recordkeeper same day.  The recordkeeper made an error and the funds were never deducted from the plan's sponsor's bank account or deposited into the participant accounts.  The account shortages were caught by your friendly neighborhood TPA while reconciling the accounts.  After numerous conversations, the recordkeeper acknowledged their error.

On June 30, 2026, the recordkeeper deducted the contribution amount from the plan sponsor's bank account, deposited the missing contributions, and backdated the deposit to November 1, 2025.  The participants received the number of shares they would have received had the deposit been made on November 1, 2025.  When calculating the earnings based upon the November 1, 2025, share values and June 30, 2026, share values, they amount to approximately $800.

The recordkeeper is insisting that this is not a late deposit since they backdated and provided the proper number of shares.  They don't believe this falls under SCP or VFCP.  Due to the timing, I agree SCP doesn't apply because the correction didn't occur within 180 days of the withholding and the VFCP calculator wasn't used to calculate earnings.  However, I still believe VFCP is required because the withholding occurred on November 1, 2025, but the funds were not segregated from employer assets until June 30, 2026.

Am I wrong here?  I prefer to be wrong, but I still believe this would be considered a late deposit regardless of who made the error or how it was corrected.

Hi, 

 

We have an awful client that needs to hire a payroll service.  This is the 4th year in a row where she's screwed everything up.  The latest is there looked like missing Roth deposits for the last few payrolls in 2025.  It was weird though because each deposit made was missing the same exact # - $110.09.  Then I search in the file and there's a listing of payroll contributions and typed next to the Roth it says "loan payments".  However, they were reported on the W-2 as Roth.  Since they are both after tax, is it ok to leave as loan payments and just reduce that amount on the admin reports.  They obviously won't tie to the payroll/W-2.  I just wasn't sure how the Roth affects the 1040 (if it does at all). 

 

Thanks, 

Ex-spouse was awarded by QDRO part of employee's 401k benefits. The plan was for spouse to pay the income tax and with the rest, buy the employee out of his portion of their equity in their house. After the QDRO was reviewed and found proper, a "tax advisor" told the ex-spouse to elect to rollover the awarded benefits to an IRA. The ex-spouse did so, only to later learn that to take the money out of the IRA, she'll face a 10% early withdrawal penalty on top of the income tax. The rollover to the IRA took place 40 days ago.

I've been contacted by the divorce attorney for the ex-spouse, in hopes of being able to remedy this and avoid the 10% early withdrawal penalty.

I do not know if it would work, but since it has been less than 60 days, can the ex-spouse cause her IRA custodian to return the funds to the 401k trust, and then take a payout of the awarded benefits directly from the 401k plan and avoid the 10% early withdrawal penalty?

Any other suggestions?

We run a small TPA Recordkeeping firm. While we've moved most things to electronic forms, we still have filing cabinets full of various old documents. The biggest one is distribution request forms mailed to us from participants, as well as inactive signed plan documents back when we handled those on paper. How long do documents like these need to be retained, or is it indefinite?

for Benefit Plans Plus (Remote / Saint Louis MO)

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