I have been in this industry since 1991 and experienced a year without a pay raise only once before, in 2002. With the problems in our economy and the market, we have not recieved any raises in our office since April 2008 (we all get a raise in pay by the end of April, as opposed to our anniversary). We did our EGTRRA restatements from November 2009 through April 2010, and billed for them too. While our employer hasn't let us know if we aren't getting a pay raise, she's hinting that it won't happen for the second year in a row. We are concerned.

Is anyone else out there in this business experiencing this? Yes, we have lost some clients - some have gone out of business and some have elected to terminate the plan to save money. We have aquired some new plans, but not as many as we have lost. My co-workers and I are worried that we billed out so much extra with the restatement, yet no raise? We also completed the ERPA at our owner's request.

Your thoughts?

What is your company doing to satisfy the DOL requirement to notify health plan eligibles of the CHIP fee assistance program? Are you waiting until Open Enrollment, using first class mail, e-mailing employees or a combination of the above? The majority of our employees do not have work e-mail access and first class mail is highly prohibitive.

We have Company A (Plan Sponsor and Employer) and Company B (a participating employer). Both make up an Affiliated Service Group.

Company B has zero ownership in Company A, but Company B is owned 100% by an individual who is participating in the Plan. This individual does not earn enough to be an HCE based on comp, but is he a 5% owner for plan purposes (HCE and Key Employee determination)?

Reg. 1.414(q)-1T, Q&A-8 seems to say, yes, the individual is considered a 5% owner. But there is just enough ambiguity in the regs to make me doubt myself.

Can someone confirm?

Thanks.

Can an employee make an prospective election change in anticipation of an event. for example, if an employee is getting married on June 1, can the employee make an election to add his new spouse (family coverage) today to be effective June 1? I don't see anything in the regulations that would prohibit this.

If a participant is taking a distribution from a 401k plan and the plan does require spousal consent but the balance is under $5000.00 does the participant have to get a spousal consent?

Does anyone know of a prototype plan document provider that can provide a prototype for a governmental 401(a) defined contribution plan (or a template in prototype format for such a plan (i.e., with a basic plan document and adoption agreement), even if not pre-approved by the IRS)? Thanks for any assistance.

DB guy asking 401k questions........

Plan is a Safe Harbor 401k with the basic match contribution. The Plan Administrator appears to be matching per payroll period with no True Ups at year end. If a participant is at the max comp level and maxes out his deferral for 2009 (not catch up eligible), is there any way that he can be allowed to receive a SHMAC of $11,339?

By my calc's 4% of $245k is $9,800.

In the past we've completed the 8109-B coupon and instructed the client to deposit the federal tax withholding with the bank that they have their business checking account with; however in the area that we're in most all of the local banks are now refusing to accept the funds (some will if it's done electronically but most of our clients don't want to go this route). Has anyone else run into this? Any suggestions? We've had some of our terminating plans mail in the check to the address on the back of the coupon just to get the funds in.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

I often get plans that fail the ADP test, but there are no refunds because of catch-ups.

If this happens to one of your plans, to you tell the ER the test fails but there is no refund? Or do you just say the plan passes?

Here is one I haven't seen before. A 401(k) plan terminates as of 5/1/2010. The ADP test is run and an HCE who had already contributed $16,500 must take back $11,000 of that deferral. He is leaving to go work for another company who has a 401(k) plan with no waiting period. I can find nothing that would allow them to make any contributions to his new company's 401(k) plan. It's a shame, because if he had only contributed a few grand, he wouldn't be having this problem. But he likes to put it all in as early as possible and historically has had to take little or nothing back.

Anyone disagree?

Tim

I am in the process of putting together a wrap document for all of our Sect. 125 plans. Currently, our company offers AFLAC deductions on a pre-tax basis, thus making it a part of 125. If I include the AFLAC info in a the Wrap document, does it then become liable for COBRA and all other ERISA requirements? I have seen conflicting opinions on this.

Any help is appreciated?

Anyone else with AFLAC on a pretax basis and a wrap doucment? How were you advised to structure things?

TIA

What if you have a missing participant from a terminated plan (check was returned). Participant is no longer in the United States.

The balance is under $500.00. What do you do with the funds? Can you open IRA's under $500.00? Doesnt seem to make sense.

Thanks

We, as TPA, work with different investment providers. Some track loans, some just invest loan repayments when told to do so.

What happens if someone pays off a loan, but the ER still send in payments every week and the money is invested in the trust?

Could that liberally be though of as a Mistake of Fact, and the money returned to the ER to then be given tot he participant? Or, should the money be forfeited and the ER pays the participant outside the plan?

Hey Guys,

Could someone please provide the reference for the Regs on No Assets, No 5500 Required? I have a plan w/a 09/01/09 effective date but because the owner became ill did not hold open enrollment or fund their new plan last year. We'll be changing the effective date to 2010 and I need to reference the Regs for the client.

Thanks!

Because of funding restrictions, all lump sums distributed under a particular DB Plan in 2009 represented only 50% of the total benefit.

The instructions to line 3 Schedule R indicate, "Line 3. Enter the number of living or deceased participants whose benefits under the plan were distributed during the plan year in the form of a single sum distribution."

Thus, a fundamentalist reading of the Schedule R instructions would suggest "0" is the appropriate entry.

How have practitioners approached this question?

When a company terminates a plan and purchases private annuities for plan participants, who is responsible if a benefit was miscalculated? The company did the original calculation (25 years ago) and the participant's pension has been in pay status since that time. He only recently learned a mistake may have been made.

Thanks!

The ERISA Outline Book includes a reminder that excess deferrals not refunded by April 15 require some other distributable event to be paid out. The EPCRS correction says it is for the excess to be distributed, but doesn't mention waiting for a distributable event.

For a client who called after April 15 saying they just learned of the excess, what does one advise about timing of the distribution?

I posted this on ira site too

to my knowledge a roth ira cannot be rolled into a defined benefit plan (or a profit sharing plan for that matter). Is that correct? I realize it makes no sense to roll a roth into a qual plan but some people seem to think it is a good idea to roll into a qual plan for protection against crediters.

thanks

I know that DBk is coming out soon for small employers, but has anyone ever seen a larger employer (over 500 lives) maintain a single trust for their 401(k) and their DB plan?

Alternativley, has anyone ever worked with a DB plan that accepted 401(k) rollovers?

Designing a NQ Plan to replace a frozen DB benefit. Client is asking us to get information about personal assets of the participants to off-set the benefit that will be funded by company contributions to NQ Plan. We understand the logic behind reducing NQ benefit by social security, or other benefit programs of the employer. However, we think is is unusual to essentially penalize those who have aggresively and histroically saved for themselves, and have the company make up for the bad habits of those who have saved nothing or little personally.

Looking for some input from the benefits community about whether any of you have ever seen such an offset, and how common these may be. Anyone??