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??

How much leeway (if any) do you have to alter (or restrict) the definitions of change in control as set forth in the regs? I am reviewed a NQDC plan which sets forth the reg definitions but then adds language that says a change in control won't be deemed to occur if the value of the business at the time of the transaction does not exceed a certain amount. Is this permissible?

Which method is preferred for reporting income for a NQDC - Rabbi Trust?

Why?

I am trying to find in ERISA how it defines the due date for a profit sharing contribution for a calendar year plan. I'm not asking about the deductibility rules (regarding extensions on corporate or 5558's). What does ERISA define for the 5500 as the rule for the deposit date? Is it October 15th?

I have a plan that provides for QPSA, small amount cash-outs, QJSA and life annuity only. It seems I must add an Optional Joint and Survivor Annuity (which I did in the PPA amendment). Now, revisiting the doc for a cycle E filing I think I need to add notice language and spousal consent. Any way around this? Thanks.

I'm thinking that as long as the 401(k) plan passes coverage, they can exclude the EEs from the for-profit businesses. But as more and more companies are added, they will no longer pass coverage if they continue to exclude that group of EEs. Are there other plan design options that they could consider? Or will they just have to bite the bullet and include the EEs from the for-profit businesses once they fail the coverage test?

A not-for-profit entity expects to add several for-profit businesses to it's growing list of companies. They currently have a 457(b) plan that includes only a couple of HCEs. They would like to include one or more HCEs from the new for-profit businesses in the 457(b) plan, but that's setting off alarm bells in my head. They also have a 401(k) plan, but I'll post that question under the 401(k) heading. Can HCEs from not-for-profit and for-profit businesses be included in an organization's 457(b) plan?

This doesn't seem right. I have a plan that has a participant who officially retired in 2004. Therefore, she was distributed out her account balance. Since then she has come back to work for the company on an "as needed" basis. The only problem is...she is working over 1,000 hours. Would this make her eligible for the plan again?

The document states that, "Upon retirement, a former participant shall cease to be a participant hereunder for all purposes except for receive distributions as set forth above."

It just doesn't seem right that she work for the company after declaring retirement and not have additional benefits....

Does anybody have an idea if there is anything regarding this topic in the Code? I will do some searching...

Thank you!

Partner in a safe harbor new comp plan with each participant in his/her own group is a former key employee - currently 3% owner with K-1 compensation under $100,000. Partners excluded from safe harbor contribution to give each partner flexibility in terms of profit sharing contribution. Plan is top-heavy and PS contribution is being made for 2009. IRC Section 416 and regs mention key, nonkey and former key employees as three distinct groups (my interpretation), but I cannot find anything that states whether or not a former key employee is included in the nonkey employee group for purposes of a top-heavy minimum contribution. In this case, the partner would be paying for a contribution for himself that he does not want to make - and then presumably, he would receive a gateway contribution??? Am I missing something that will give me the answer I want, i.e., former keys do not receive the top-heavy minumum?

SSO, anyone using this feature and having third party involvement. I.E. RELIUS, Investment/Recordkeeper Web,TPA(you)?

If so, is it working? We cannot get the client through the "portal" from Vendor to RELIUS.

I have a cross-tested PSP. Participants who terminate with more than 500 hours receive an allocation. One of the groups is Doctors who are hired after 2005. I have a doctor who enters in 2009 and is not highly compensated for 2009, and terminates in 2009 with more than 1,000 hours. He is zero percent vested. The document calls for deemed distributions to participants who terminate with 0 vesting and there is no mention of when the forfeiture occurs.

The problem I have is that this doctor is getting a fairly high contribution because the client wants to benefit that group. This benefit in turn helps the plan to pass non-discrimination as the doctor is new. But the whole contribution is going to be forfeited either in 2009 or 2010.

In my mind I'm thinking about the retroactive amendments when you fail a test and amend to increase the benefits for some NHCE's. I know that you cannot do this for non-vested terminees as it is not a meaningful benefit. Is there a meaningful benefit rule for general testing?

If the contribution and forfeiture both occur in 2009 does it make sense to include the contribution in the test at all?

I don't recall ever reading something that allows me to either exclude him from the test or to not count the contribution because it will be forfeited - but the fair part of my brain just thinks this should not work.

Thanks for any thoughts.

Our 401k plan's TPA just notified us that they are going to offer a new hardship withdrawal distribution procedure under which a participant will be required to e-certify the purpose of the distribution and provide specific details about his or her financial need. The plan uses the safe-harbor hardship rules. The TPA is proposing that participants will no longer be required to provide supporting documentation of the financial need at the time of the application. Instead, participants will be told to retain any supporting documentation and that the plan administrator reserves the right to request that documentation at any time. The TPA says that the regs do not state that separate written supporting documentation is required to demonstrate a financial need and in the absence of definitive guidance, its new procedure should be sufficient to meet any IRC requirements. Any thoughts?