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100% Survivorship Portion
I have a QDRO that does not award the AP any distribution from the DB plan except for the following language:
"This Order assigns to the AP an amount equal to 100% of the survivorship portion of the Participant's benefits which have accured during the entirety of the Participant's enrollment and membership in the Plan."
The remainder of the proposed DRO is the fund's model separate interest QDRO. It speaks to the AP being named surviving spouse for 100% of the QPSA. I know this is acceptable, but can you also be named survivor for QJSA?
Any assistance/explanation would be helpful and very much appreciated.
Consent Resolution
Does anyone have a template for a consent resolution where I can borrow some language, i.e. intro language, some whereas clauses, santa clauses, etc.
I've got an assignment to draft a consent resolution. I've seen them in other jobs but this is a new job and I don't have a sample to guide me.
Any help is appreciated.
IRA beneficiary designation pre-divorce
I filed for divorce in Calif 4/08. We have a special needs daughter with a revocable special needs trust with my SSN as the tax id.
My will be ex-husband moved his IRAs from one brokerage to another. The new brokerage sent him an "IRA beneficiary designation form" to complete that needs my signature. On the form he specifies 50% to spouse(me); 25% to his daughter by a former marriage; 25% to the Special Needs Trust.
I don't know if the new brokerage knows that we are divorcing.
Question: is this a ploy for me to relinquish a portion of his IRA that is due me in the splitting of community assets?
Thank you in advance for your reply.
benefit restrictions
Does anyone know if retroactive disability payments would be subject to benefit restrictions?
I have a plan where the AFTAP is 65%. The plan pays an immediate disability benefit commencing when social security deems a person disabled. Sometimes social security takes years to make this determination. For example, the participant might receive a letter in 2009 stating they were disabled in 2007. In this situation the plan would retro pay disability benefits back to 2007. (disability is pure subsidy - not a retirement benefit)
I know the regs say "any payment", but I was wondering if for some reason ancillary disability payments might be exempt.
Extension of Forfeiture Period
I have a restricted stock award where an employee will vest in a certain number of shares in a closely held company at the end of this year after sucessfully completing 10 years of service. Assuming the arrangement is not subject to Section 409A, can the forfeiture period be extended by the end of this year for another 7 years under Section 83 without trigerring taxation? Thanks for the help.
Leave of absence
An employee is taking an unpaid leave of absence which qualifies as a change in status. Normally, we would change the election upon commencment and change it again upon return. However, in this case, the employee is taking leave until the end of the plan year. There are still some unreimbursed funds in the Medical account and she has not yet made contributions equal to the total election.
Do we simply change the election and try to have her find some reciepts to cover the unreimbursed portion or hurry and get some work done or buy something? Is there a way she can "prepay" to remaining election? Can she somehow incur expenses during the leave and have them reimbursed?
Plan Limits
Does anyone know where to find unrounded plan limits for 2009?
Shareholder liability 401k (employer match)
Can you make the shareholders pay for the employer match in a 401k Plan? The company does not have enough money to fund the employer match. Is there a way to make the shareholders pay for it?
PPA Distribution Notices
It seems that an additional Distribution Notice is required to be provided to a participant in addition to the "Special Tax Notice" and the Distribution Form (which we prefill with vesting and fee information) from (John Hancock, ING, etc.). It also seems that if the participant's distribution amount is less than $5,000 ... then this extra notice is not required - is that correct? Are any of your firms preparing this "additional" notice that seems redundant? If so, are you preparing them for all distributions or just for those with less than $5,000? Any responses or thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thank You!
Can a small business have 2 SEP Ira accounts?
I have recently learned that if I amend my eligibly of my SEP from a 2 year to a 3 year, any employees that now qualify in the 2 year eligibility will be grand fathered in.
I plan on giving my employees a nice bonus at the end of the year, and would prefer not to be forced to contribute to them via the SEP. So instead of amending the SEP, can I just create a second SEP? I did find research from the IRS and other sources that a business can have multiple SEP accounts.
IE: One with Schwab and one with Fidelity for example. <-- I assume both are prototype SEP agreements
Is the SEP agreement specific to each broker? If so, it would make sense that each SEP account will carry its own eligibility agreement.
Then I am guessing, I can decide which SEP account to fund at the end of the year. So for my favor, this year I will fund the Fidelity SEP with a 3 year eligibility and not fund the Schwab SEP with only a 2 year eligibility.
Does this seem correct? Please help.
And finally, if the above does not work? Can I terminate my Schwab 2 year eligibility SEP IRA and start a new Fidelity 3 year eligibility SEP IRA. I would think that each plan is independent of each other. If I am not happy with the Schwab SEP IRA, why not cancel and start over?
in-kind contributions
HCE took a loan from his profit sharing plan in prior year.
Now he wants to repay the loan in part by transferring an investment into the plan.
Is that allowed?
He wants to use an investment in a limited partnership.
Thanks for any guidance on this!
Form 5500 & Policy Year change mid-yr
Group Life plan on a calendar year basis changed carriers midyear in 2008 on 4/1. The Sched A for the old policy will reflect zero participants at eoy. The new policy is a 2 yr policy through 3/31/10. So the 1st policy yr ends 3/31/09 which would be included in the 2009 5500 filing. The 2008 form therefore will show zero participants at eoy since only the Sched A for the old policy will be included. Does that sound correct?
Cash Balance and Profit Sharing Plan Vesting Question
With regard to a Profit Sharing Plan that is combined with a Cash Balance Plan - does the vesting schedule under the Profit Sharing Plan have to be a 3-year 100% vested schedule because it is combined with the Cash Balance Plan or can the Profit Sharing Plan keep its 6 year graded vesting schedule?
I'm getting conflicting information and need some help.
Thanks.
Limitations of QDROs
I am divorcing my retired spouse, who is collecting benefits (we are in California) from a university defined benefit plan. He is taking a reduced benefit now so that I can continue to receive payments after he dies. The university plan has two categories for those who can receive payments after the principal dies. One of them clearly applies after divorce. But the other is called "surviving spouse", and it apparently does not apply to a divorced spouse (the plan says that the benefit can be paid instead to a dependent child or parent). My question is if a QDRO can be used to force the university to treat a divorced spouse as a surviving spouse. My husband has no objection to having me receive both forms of payment after he dies.
AFTAP
4/1/2009 Plan sponser elects to use non-tranistional segment rates for 1/1/2009 val. I see AFTAP will be 55%, but wait until 9/30 to certify since prior year was 82%. Benefit restrictions came in 4/1/2009, participants notified of 50% LS restriction.
9/14/09 IRS says you can use yield curve for 2009 and switch back to segment rates for 2010
9/30/09 I cert AFTAP at 55% based on non-transitional segment rates.
10/2/09 PS elects yield curve for 2009 valuation. AFTAP based on yield curve is 75%.
10/2/09 I re-certify AFTAP at 75%.
Since no notices were ever sent notifing participants of complete restriction, is this a material change?
I'm thinking my 10/2 cert is the AFTAP and it's not material. I think if it would have happened after the 100% lump sum restriction notice was sent, then I might have a material change and I would have been stuck with the 55%, although the proposed regs seem a little contradictory.
What if the PS made this election on 9/14/2010? I think How do you handle changes in the funding target after 10/1 of the current year?
Non-elective Safe Harbor
Hi,
I have a plan that wants to elect non-elective safe harbor that is 7%, is this permissible? Is there a percentage limit that they can elect?
Thanks!
Jason
SArs to terminated employees
I am preparing for my term mailing. I have captured my terms for 2008.
My question is do I need to send out to terminated employees in 2009
who were in the plan 2008. Any help would be appreciated.
thank you
409(h)(4) vs 54.4975-7(b)(11) (Put option)
I'm trying to understand the distinction between the 409(h)(4) put option period of at least 60 days in 2 succeeding years and the -7(b)(11) requirement of at least a 15 month put option. They both start the day the stock is distributed in year 1. The 60 day one then springs to life again for another 60 days after the valuation is complete in year 2 (we says statements are distributed to participants). Assume all that happens on the same day every year, June 1. So you have a put option that runs through the end of July in year 1 and then may go dormant until June 1 of year 2 and then runs again through the end of July. Under this scenario, a total of 14 months. This option periods could run longer but only have to be at least 60 days.
The -7(b)(11) option is exercisable at least during a 15 month period. How do they work together, or do they? Seems like the 15 month period wouldn't really work for the period of time after a year end valuation date unless everything gets done very quickly. Not my normal experience. You couldn't exercise the option at the previous year's price in the new year. So just use whatever is longer? I don't recall ever seeing a document using the -7(b)(11) language. They all (including ours) seem to use 409(h)(4). As always, thoughts are appreciated.
Cash Balance Interest Credit Timing
A cash balance plan credits interest on 12-31 of each calendar year.
The credit is equal to a safe-harbor (for age discrimination rules) rate x the hypothetical account balance on 12-31 of the prior year.
The interest crediting rules say that interest must be credited at least annually. However, under the above noted approach, new participants won't get an interest credit on their first 12-31 because they don't have an account balance that existed on the piror 12-31. This means that a participant who joins on a given January 1, won't get an interest credit until nearly two years later.
I can't find any guidance (other than what's in the proposed regs) on this, but it seems that we have to credit interest at some point during the participant's first 12 months of service.
Any thoughts?
ESOP & Schedule A
Small ESOP Plan (<20) has rollover accounts which have insurance policies as an investment.
Is there any reason why this plan would not file a Schedule A?





