You ask why you have to email me separate pdfs of all the attachments when the information is in the audit report pdf you were so gracious to provide.

I agree all of this stuff is contained in the audit report and preparing separate attachments is redundant and causes discomfort when you sit down. My suggestion is to voice your complaints not at me, the lowly messenger, but rather to the DOL, IRS, American Academy of Actuaries and anyone else who couldn't care less about utility, anyone's inconvenience, or client expense, let alone your humble, professional opinion.

Alternatively, you may wish to take a ball-peen hammer and repeatedly strike the middle of your forehead.

Preparing 2009 Schedule SB for 12/31/2009 val. Line 15 (AFTAP) of the Schedule SB says that if the valuation date is other than the first day of the year then you must report the final certified AFTAP based on 2009 valuation results (and reflecting 2009 contributions). So when we prepared the 12/31/2009 valuation the certified AFTAP did not reflect any 2009 contributions. Since the Schedule SB must reflect 2009 contributions then another AFTAP must be certified and entered on line 15? So if the AFTAP is including contributions then it would make sense that the Target Normal Cost would have to be added to the Funding Target to be consistent? Correct?

Restriction on OTC drugs and medicines w/out a prescription

Does anyone have any ideas on whether this restriction applies only to drugs and medicines? I have heard somewhere that items such as Band Aids, Blood pressure meters, etc are still acceptable. Any ideas, any reg’s to back it up?

Can you avoid the implications of Section 409A(b)(3) if the NQDC plan is sponsored by an entity that is in a separate QSLOB than the sponsor of the pension plan which is "at risk"?

EE says they handed in paperwork to enroll in 2008 (elig. for plan in 2006) and that ER did not submit. Office Mgr. of er says they did not ever receive paperwork. Broker has copy of paperwork submitted in 2008, but doesn't look like it went anwhere from there/did not make it to the ER.

If ER wants to correct (versus do nothing):

If we were to pursue corrections based on "exclusion of eligible ee", & the "lost opportunity cost" to make deferrals, the make-up payment is based on 50% of the pre-tax deferrals the ee would have made which is based on the ee's Comp times the ADP of the EEs class. However, no one else defers into the Plan (only three elig.). The orig. enrollment forms document that the ee wanted to defer 10%.

Since we cant base the calc an ADP% (it would be zero), would we just use the 10% intended deferral %?

Our pension document provider supplied us with blank form notices and distribution elections behind one of the tabs in the binder they sent to us.

We administer sign-up's and distributions in-house. A recent, informal compliance audit of our plan records showed that 32% of the packages we'd put together or the elections we'd based payouts on were incorrect or incomplete. (We had less than 0.1% error rates in providing SPDs, safe harbor notices, and 401k sign-up's.) Our risk management director wants us to outsource preparing distribution compliance.

Neither our pension document provider and our Form 5500 provider will prepare distribution notice/election packages, or routinely review completed and signed elections that we receive back. Our pension document provider did explain that they based our plan documents on documents the provider obtained from Sungard Relius.

Does Sungard or some other company offer a service of preparing distribution notice/election packages based on Sungard plan documents, review elections turned back in, and then advise us of when and how to make payout?

What I would really like, if it is available, would be an online service where one of our benefits employees could log in, enter information about the terminated employee and her benefits, and then it would generate the notices and elections appropriate for her in light of our Sungard documents. Does anyone know of such an online service?

A fire district established a FICA alternative plan paying 7.5% of compensation for all eligible participants. To comply with Section 3121(b)(7)-2, contributions are invested in a fixed investment (no variable investments) and benefits must be 100% nonforfeitable. The employer wishes to add an additional employer contribution of 7.5% of compensation subject to a vesting schedule and invested in separate account options allowed under the group annuity contract. Are there any issues the employer faces in adding this additional contribution to the FICA alternative plan?

Hello,

For 401K plans through an insurance company, what amounts are you reporting here? The commissions paid to the broker? What about any "TPA Basis Point Fees" (that is language used by ING in their Schedule A information).

Thank you.

Client filed return for YE 10/31/09 on 6/9/10. Sent on paper to Lawrence KS. Rec'd Notice 1393 from IRS saying return must be elecctronically filed. I called EFAST2 helpline and was told I needed to call IRS. I called IRS (877-829-5500) and was told the return has to be filed elecronically - call EFAST2. (I thought I saw an article on this subject recently but can't find it.) What to do now?

We have a connection/friend who is an RIA. They are getting audited by the DOL. They had requested a listing of all of their qualified plans that they do work for, and she has selected a sample from that list. The DOL apparently knows that they are just the RIA. What could the DOL be looking for? We've never heard of these sorts of audits before... Has anyone been through one?

Our client is a controlled group of corporations with each controlled group member maintaining its own 401(k) plan. With the expiration of Code Section 410(b) transitional relief for 2009, some of the plans failed the coverage test. We have looked at multiple testing methods. The most viable is applying the average benefits test and converting the allocation rate to a benefits rate through cross testing. However, the contribution required to correct the failure is extremely significant even though it is the least expensive of the alternatives.

Has anyone had experience or heard of the IRS, through VCP or otherwise, permitting the correction of a coverage failure by reducing and forfeiting contributions made for the highly compensated rather than making additional contributions for the non-highly compensated or adding eligible participants? Will the IRS consider alternatives to the traditional correction approach in light of financial or business hardship that would result from the traditional correction method? We understand there may be anti cut-back issues with our alternative approach.

Please let us know your thoughts or any ideas.

Our client is a controlled group of corporations with each controlled group member maintaining its own 401(k) plan. With the expiration of Code Section 410(b) transitional relief for 2009, some of the plans failed the coverage test. We have looked at multiple testing methods. The most viable is applying the average benefits test and converting the allocation rate to a benefits rate through cross testing. However, the contribution required to correct the failure is extremely significant even though it is the least expensive of the alternatives.

Has anyone had experience or heard of the IRS, through VCP or otherwise, permitting the correction of a coverage failure by reducing and forfeiting contributions made for the highly compensated rather than making additional contributions for the non-highly compensated or adding eligible participants? Will the IRS consider alternatives to the traditional correction approach in light of financial or business hardship that would result from the traditional correction method? We understand there may be anti cut-back issues with our alternative approach.

Please let us know your thoughts or any ideas.

I am using Relius and will file via IFILE for single/multiple employer plans of fewer than 500 participants. Sooner likely rather than later I thought I might muck this up. I created the checklist in a mad attempt to protect myself form myself. Feel free to use as you please and please comment if you find omissions or routinely needed attachments.

EFAST2_5500_Filing_Checklist.doc

I am reading through the new SEC final rule on pay to play for governmental retirement systems. I am unsure whether their definition of elected official includes people who are solely elected by the membership of the retirement systems. For example, if someone on a City retirement system board is elected by the active employees, are they covered by 206(4)-5? Are there the same restrictions on investment advisors (it would certainly seem consistent with the SEC's intent). The retirement system certainly looks like the SEC is treating it as a governmental entity.

My client has a Safe Harbor Plan. The Safe Harbor is met by doing a Non-elective Match of 5%.

The employer wanted to know if they can have the HCE only be Matched at 3%. They are looking to do this to save the company some money.

My client has a Safe Harbor Plan. The Safe Harbor is met by doing a Non-elective Match of 5%.

The employer wanted to know if they can have the HCE only be Matched at 3%. They are looking to do this to save the company some money.

Can they have a different Safe Harbor Match for the HCEs then the NHCEs?

If an employer has a 401(a) plan that allows for the employee contributions to be picked up do these employee contributions count against the 402(g) limit or are they totally considered employer contributions?

My client, found that a participant's pre-tax contributions have been submitted to us by the client as After Tax Monies. For the past 4 to 5 years she has all After Tax money in her account. Due to this, she has not received any match. What are the steps to correct this? The client will change the way they submit her information to us. But we need to move the money from the After Tax Source to the Pre tax Source and also give her the match and any earnings. What needs to be done with her w-2 and yearly personal taxes?

I am trying to upload a large plan with Attachments, everything is attached correctly but when I publish the plan I receive the error "error occurred while trying to upload the attachments to the plans you published". I have published another large plan is was able to attach and publish. The enable filing is on. Any ideas?

We are taking over administration for a plan that has been in existance for 4 years and is on a John Hancock platform. The piror TPA never filed the Schedule A or D. They also never filed a Schedule R. I was wondering what the penalty would be for a plan that files the Form 5500 on time but does not file all the required schedules.

Thanks for any info!