Plan was set up in the 60's w/ a special effective for 401k of 1/1/2007. If the plan is being restated, is it necessary to continue to indciate the special effective dates for the 401k feature? I've always looked at those fields in the prototype as a way to create one document today that can have certain features kick in tomorrow, but that it's not necessarily necessary to memorialize until the end of time.

A resolution by the retirement plan committee (not a plan amendment):

"Until a Participant or beneficiary receives an additional contribution to his or her account under the Plan, no income or gains of less than $25 shall be allocated to a Participant's or beneficiary's account after he or she has received a lump-sum distribution from the Plan. If such income or gains are allocated to a Participants's or beneficiary's account, such amounts, as directed by the Committee, shall be treated as forfeitures of Matching Contributions."

Are there any known issues using Relius Web client to submit 5500s to clients and DOL?

Anyone having software problems?

Can someone please tell me the deadline for making a top paid group election under 414(q) (1)(B)(ii) in order to be effective for the testing year of calendar 2010?

I have a Newsletter which claims that the PPA established a set deadline for making the election. The Newsletter says that the election must be made "by the end of the plan year." I am unclear as to which plan year the Newsletter is referring to ... the testing year (2010), or the preceding "lookback" year (2009).

I was unable to find the relevant provision in the PPA. Can anyone provide me a citation?

Thanks for your help!

We administer a calendar year 401(k) profit sharing plan that has a pooled account consisting of various investments, including cash, mutual funds, etc. and a parcel of undeveloped land. The appraised value of the property as of 12/31/09 has decreased substantially from the appraised value as of 12/31/08. As of 12/31/09 the property is worth less than what is owed on the note, so when we calculate what each participant's account balance, the values are negative. There are HCE's and NHCE's participating in the plan. Any suggestions or input on what to do? Is this right?

Thanks!

What is the fiduciary duty of a Plan to the alternate payee?

I'm an AP to my ex's annuity plan. When I asked the plan to place an administrative hold on the account until they receive a court signed QDRO, the plan told me they only do that for 30 days at a time and for a maximum of 60 days. I asked what happens if that time passes and they court hasn't signed a QDRO and the participant retires and withdraws all the funds. I told them my ex will be retiring soon. The plan told me that they don't protect the AP's funds after the 60 days if they haven't received a court signed QDRO.

Is this a breach of the fiducuary duty to the AP?

Also, I asked for their plan procedures after a draft QDRO is submitted and they said they are not in writing but they could "tell" me their procedures.

Don't they have to file written plan procedures with the DOL?

Can someone shed some light on this? Thank you in advance.

Where do you mail the 5500ez for 2009 (using 2008 EZ form)? Thanks

Over the past couple days, I've been getting "IPS" errors, or something like that. Says something is wrong w/ the database.

Anyone else getting that error a lot?

Assume a health FSA operates on a year of Feb. 1, 2010 to Jan. 31, 2011 (so employee salary reduction elections were made prior to PPACA), it files its 6039D information on that basis, and would report any discriminatory benefits for key employees or highly compensated employees as of the year ending 01/31/2011. Assume further that some participants file for bankruptcy during 2010, so their taxable years are not necessarily a calendar year. When does the restriction of new IRC section 125(i) become applicable so as to prohibit reimbursement for over the counter medications in "taxable years" beginning after 12/31/2010?

Thank you in advance for your replies to this question.

An ERISA 403(b) plan provides that the employer, at its discretion, may make a nonelective contribution equal to a percentage of compensation, determined by the employer, for the payroll period, not to exceed $2,000. This nonelective contribution is subject to a 100% immediate vesting schedule. For 2009, one participant received total employer contributions of $3,257.

Should the excess amount of $3,257 and associated earnings be taken out of the participant's account and used as a credit towards future contributions? If there is a loss associated with the excess amount, would the employer be responsible for making whole the amount?

A VEBA has a Health Reimbursement Arrangment within it and is looking to transfer the assets of that HRA into an HRA maintained by a 501©(5) (labor organization) entity. The assets will be used for the same purpose but I can't find any IRS PLR's on point addressing any issues raised. Any thoughts?

A plan sponsor wishes to resume accruals after being frozen prior to PPA. What is the required funding percentage? 80% or 60%

457(f) plan had phyisicans who did not want to participate in plan sign a waiver. The waiver does not state that it is irrevocable, but does state that it can be revoked at any time within 14 days after execution. The plan sponsor has changed benefit provisions of the plan to make it more attractive. The physicians that signed the waiver of participation now want to participate. Given the way the waiver is drafted I think the client is comfortable with allowing these physicians to revoke their waiver. My thought is to treat it more like an election not to defer. My issue is when can these physicians join the plan? I interpret the 409A regs to require an election to defer prior to the first day of the year in which the compensation is to be earned. Therefore, these physicians cannot make a deferral election for compensation to be earned in 2010 and must wait until 2011 to participate. Any thoughts?

In a new comparability allocation, can you provide an allocation of 0% to one group if the plan does not have HCEs? I'm drawing a blank as to why it would not work.

We're using the 5500 Code 2T for default investments, along with codes 2F and 2G. Relius keeps kicking out a validation error on this saying invalid entry. Are other people using code 2T in this way?

I have a medical group that has one receptionist that is a leased employee. The leasing company says that it does not have the ability to do pre-tax withholdings for the employees that it leases.

The leasing company does have a 401k plan for employees that physically work for the leasing company (like in its corporate office, for example), but the employees that it leases to other organizations are not covered under this plan.

I've never dealt with this before. Does anyone have any suggestions for dealing with this if the receptionist wants to defer into the medical practice's plan?

Assuming that your health/welfare plan SPDs are ERISA compliant, is a Plan Document required?

Thanks.

We need to do a money purchase plan document, although we do not sponsor a MP prototype. What do other people do? Are there services out there that will allow you to utilize a Corbel prototype that some business has adopted, and will just charge per document.

For example, it was not cost effective for us to adopt our own MP prototype, nor a Volumen Submitter "check the box" document, since we only have a handul of plans that need those.

And I don't want to use those really nasty IDP documents because they're so hard to work with...

I heard at the 2009 ASPPA conference that a QACA (to take advantage of the slightly lower match and longer 2 year vesting schedule) must calculate the match based on all compensation, thus the plan must have true-up language in it if the match is funded each pay period. Reviewing the outline it says, "The QACA requires that you use all compensation while eligible. So this may require a true-up conribution if deferrals do not begin on eligibility date." Listening to the CD, the speaker says that this means that QACA's must have true-up provisions in them.

For those of you that have tackled QACA's, is this what you're doing and is this your understanding of the regs, too?

Hi

If the 402g limit is exceeded by 16 cents, what is the correction? Can the $75 de minimus rule under Section 6.02(5)(b) of Reve Proc 2008-50 EPCRS be applied since it will cost more in payment fees to distribute the excess than 16 cents? Should the participant include in his 1040 as taxable income, or is there a de minimus income tax rule too?

thanks!