My client has a participant who was recently in an accident and is in an unconscious state in intensive care. He does not have a POA for his wife, nor can he sign a form or call the Recordkeeper to elect his deferrals to be suspended.

The participant is currently receiving disability and the client would like to suspend his payroll deferral. Can the plan suspend the his payroll deferrals under these circumstances without his consent? Thanks.

If the Recordkeeper will be increasing a plans administrative fees next year and these fees are paid by the plan participants and allocated gross per capita. Is there any legal requirement to notify the participants of this change in fees?

Can a multiemployer DB plan stop payments to people who retired from Union employment (at then-age 55 NRD) that are now collecting a monthly check and working in non-union employment?

I thought not, don't see any such language in the current plan document, but others are insisting yes, the plan should contain this language or could be amended to contain this language.

Opt in for non-web usage - my client is interested in requiring all communication/activity for participants to be web based - for example participant would have to opt in to get paper statements - is there any DOL guidance on this?

Participant who has been receiving required minimum distributions dies before his 2010 birthday. For his 2010 RMD, do I use his actual age as of his date of death (79) or the age he would have attained in 2010 (80) had he lived?

Thanks!

Plan sponsor files a small plan 2007 5500 via DFVC in June 2010; paid their $750 fee. Turns out the 2008 filing has not been made & the 2009 filing will more than likely be late. Both will be large plan filings. Can they apply the $750 paid in June to reduce the $4,000 DFVC fee for 2008 & 2009?

Thanks in advance for any guidance.

An employee with spouse coverage is contributing the maximum monthy amount to his HSA from January to September. October 1, spouse gets her own coverage at a new employer and it is non-HDHP coverage. Can the employee continue to contribute the amount for employee only coverage for the balance of the calendar year? It will put him over the employee only limit. Thank you.

I've got a client on a prototype plan that allows for (but doesn't require) a true-up to be made for its matching contributions. It's not a safe harbor. For the past few years, they've only made true-up contributions on behalf of employees who have hit the 402(g) limit. Their theory is that this is fair because these employees are shut off from making additional deferrals to get more matching contributions.

I'm concerned that this might be discriminatory because it's more likely to benefit HCEs, although I don't yet have the numbers to back this up. My first idea was to have them make true-up contributions to all employees for the years affected, but we found out that this is going to cost a boatload of money. My other concern, of course, is that the plan doesn't say that you can make any type of contribution on behalf of people who hit the 402(g) limit, but not others.

I suppose we could try to plug this scenario into the plan retroactively and try to clear it through VCP, but I'm not sure how much luck we're going to have, unless we can show that this is definitely not discriminatory. For what it’s worth, they just got done with an IRS audit and this issue didn't come up.

Anyone have any thoughts or ideas as to where to go from here? I also doubt they're going to want to refund the true-ups for the people who got them, but that might have to be the answer. If you've got any thoughts, let me know. Thanks in advance.

JB

Company A acquires company B in October of 2010. Company A has a 401k plan, company B a SIMPLE IRA plan. Company A permits company B to continue with the SIMPLE plan until 12/31/10 at which time it will be terminated. All employees will be eligible for company A's plan in 2011.

Questions

1) Can company A make the required SIMPLE matching contribution on the 2010 obligation in 2011 or do they have to make it in 2010?

2) Are the company B employees prohibited from rolling over their SIMPLE plan assets into the new 401k if they have not been in the SIMPLE plan for more than 2 years?

Given the recent changes enacted regarding the Roth 401(k) plan, can anyone cofirm whether required minimum distributions are still imposed on Roth 401(k) accounts? Also, can a participant of a Roth 401(k) plan rollover into the plan a profit sharing account from a previous employer's plan? Only employee deferral sources are allowed to rolled over into a Roth 401(k) plan?

Under EFAST2, are there any complications for multiemployer plans where two trustees must each sign as administrator? In reviewing online followings I find some disparity. Some plans have one trustee signature appearing on the proper admin signature line, and the other on the plan sponsor line ( I think this was the most often used method on paper filings even though no one was technically signing as plan sponsor) . Some have one signature on the admin signature line and the other signature on the admin printed name line.

Or doesn't it really matter, as long as the two trustees have filing signer credentials it all works out?

OK, my wife and I signed up for a very expensive plan. Then, one week after my open enrollment ended, her work announced that they would be offering free insurance for her and her family. Does this count as a qualifying event? Should we be able to opt out of my insurance?

If the Recordkeeper will be increasing a plans administrative fees next year and these fees are paid by the plan participants and allocated gross per capita. Is there any legal requirement to notify the participants of this change in fees?

Hello

I am wondering if there are any IRS regulations on point, and if most plans reduce for early retirement in the same manner as the following plan provision? The plan administrator interprets the provision to mean that there are NO partial years for an early retirement reduction. Therefore, if you are 55 and 11/12th, you have a reduction factor of 10 (assuming 65 NRA), instead of 9 1/12th. Basically, they round up. Is that ok?

"An eligible Participant's monthly early retirement benefit shall be equal to his Accrued Benefit on the date of his early retirement; provided, however, that if the sum of the Participant's age and years of Service as of his Annuity Starting Date does not equal at least 85, the amount of such benefit shall be reduced by the smaller of (i) 2 1/2 percent for each year or fraction thereof by which his age on his Annuity Starting Date precedes age 65 or (ii) 2 1/2 percent for each year or fraction thereof by which the sum of his age and years of Service at his Annuity Starting Date is less than 85."

If the Recordkeeper will be increasing a plans Administrative fees next year and these fees are paid by the plan participants and allocated gross per capita. Is there any legal requirement to notify the participants of this change in fees?

Question 1: Is a change in PPA interest rate basis (e.g. changing from Jan 2008 seg rates for 2008 to November 2008 seg rates or November fyc for 2009) considered a change in funding method per line item 25 on 2009 Sched SB??

Question 2: Besides the pdf files of the Sched SB and each individual attachment, in what format does the Sched SB need to be completed for actual efiling? We only prepare the SB for our clients, we do not prepare the Form 5500 so we can't prepare an xml file for uploading. We had been sending the pdf files and it turns out our clients are manually entering the Sched SB data when filing the 5500 and that's never a good thing. Can anyone in this situation provide any help?

Responses are greatly appreciated.

If the Recordkeeper will be increasing a plans Administrative fees next year and these fees are paid by the plan participants and allocated gross per capita. Is there any legal requirement to notify the participants of this change in fees?

I have a client with a SIMPLE 401(k) Plan. They would like to start a safe harbor 401(k) plan next year. I know one of the requirements for sponsoring a SIMPLE plan is that the "eligible employer" can not maintain any other plan which means my client will no longer be an employer eligible to sponsor a SIMPLE 401(k) Plan after it commences its safe harbor 401(k) plan in 2011.

Is there any way to convert a SIMPLE 401(k) plan into a safe harbor 401(k) plan or merge the SIMPLE plan into the safe harbor 401(k) plan or must the client terminate the SIMPLE Plan? My client would like to avoid triggering distributions under the SIMPLE 401(k) Plan. Is there another way to accomplish this besides merging or converting?

Any advice is appreciated.

Does anyone have any thoughts on whether a change in plan design for 2011 to require participants to pay for medical coverage outside a cafeteria plan (i.e., on an after-tax basis) might somehow cause the plan to lose grandfathered status under PPACA? I don't think it would but I wonder if an argument can be made to the contrary.

(This possible change is an attempt to get around the cafeteria plan eligibility nondiscrimination tests, which would likely be failed on a control group basis.)

The following is a question an associate on another board had.

We are having a disagreement at work about employees participating in both a 401k and 457b.

Example: A new employee participated in a 401k at her old job. She contributed the maximum of $16,500. Now she works for the government and participates in a 457b. She contributes the maximum of $16,500 by year end. Is this legitimate and allowable?