Hi all,

We're looking for an actuary in the Philadelphia area to do some FAS 106 actuarial work. If you know of anyone, please respond by email: scott2434@rcn.com

TIA.

.. Scott

Hi all,

We're looking for an actuary in the Philadelphia area to do some FAS 106 actuarial work. If you know of anyone, please respond by email: scott2434@rcn.com

TIA.

.. Scott

I was wondering if anyone knows where I can find a definition of the phrase "total client assets under its management and control" for purposes of meeting the $85 million in assets requirement for a QPAM, under PTE 84-14. Thanks for any responses.

Reposting from "plan terminations" board ...

Under a partial plan termination, vesting of the affected participants is required TO THE EXTENT FUNDED. I take this to mean that vesting is granted to non-vested affected participants only if the plan's assets exceeds the Priority Category 5 plan termination liability. Is this a correct interpretation? If so, I would guess that in the current environment, not much extra vesting will be happening. Or said another way, if the assets are below the PC5 liability, who cares if a partial plan termination has occurred?

Thoughts/comments?

Should a participant be reported on Schedule SSA if he/she has received the first in a series of scheduled installment payments?

I'm looking for information on what others charge for qualified retirement plan distribution fees (Terminations, Retirements, Death, Disability, In-Service, Hardship Withdrawals, etc.) from Defined Contribution Plans: 1) How much do you charge, 2) for smaller distributions equal to or less than the distribution fee, do you just have a fee transaction with no distribution made, or, do you waive the fee on small amounts. If you do waive fees on smaller amounts, what is the minimum dollar amount used, 3) Do you charge more for Roth distributions? Thanks for your feedback!

For a 100% shareholder employee of a Sub-S Corp. I have the following ?’s:

1. Is his comp for plan purposes limited to his W-2 or do we also include all or a portion of his K-1 income?

2. Is the deduction for any employer contribs attributable to his account taken on the corporate return with everyone elses (as it would be for a regular corp.) or is it taken on 1040 (as it would for a sole prop. Or a partner in a partnership?

Any cites appreciated!

A two participant plan is basically in existence so the trustee can use it as a bank. He currently has 3 loans with balances totaling 31014.88. The highest balance in the past 12 months was 55999.17. The plan does allow for 3 loans and he does make timely payments. However, this month he has paid off one loan, he now has 2 outstanding and is in the process of taking a new loan to pay off high int credit cards. He has been advised that this will violate the plan provisions. He wants to know possible ramifications if the plan got audited. Is it a taxable event? I explained that on the 5500 he has to report his outstanding loan balances and it would look fishy if his balance was high as compared to total plan assets, which is about $200,000.

The rules are out that we need to amend the plans that have a normal retirement age of less than 62. I have quite a few plans with 55, 59, and 60. Seems a shame to have to do that when some are really retiring at that early age - one participant doctor or lawyer plans.

Does this apply to DC plans also? It really doesnt specify in the notice. Also - does this include the provisions for early retirement age 55? Does that need to be taken away also?

I have attached the article from ASPPA. Thanks

(Right at the top of the ASPPA ASAP it says it's copyrighted and for internal use only, so I deleted it from your post.)

When calculating the excise tax on failure to transmit deferrals timely, if I understand it correctly, the excise tax is 15% for each taxable year that the correction is not made.

I'm not sure when the correction is deemed to be made. Is the correction made when the deferrals are deposited? The interest on late deferrals is deposited? The excise tax on the prohibited transaction is paid?

Can someone help?

Thanks!

Does any have any suggestions for ce credits, I guess I need to get the ball rolling to get enough credits for this year.

I know ASPPA is an approved sponsor, I'll most likely will use them. Just curious to see what everyone else is doing?

The IRS guidance says the notice regarding the election of prior year's funding status is to go to various parties, including "participants." The IRS does not define participant. If the election is to retain the prior year's "good" status (not endangered or critical) do all participants, active term vested and in pay status, receive the notice?

Is a payment contingent on a change in control subject to a substantial risk of forfeiture regardless of the change in control definition (knowing that there must be some risk)? In other words, if an agreement promises to pay an employee $x when there is a change in control, can we design the CIC defintion as we like or must it comply with the 409A CIC definition? We would like to use our own defintion and keep the payment a short-term deferral.

Can a plan utilize a discretionary match formula that matches more than 100% of deferrals and caps the match at X percent? Example match 125% of the first 2% deferred?

Does anyone know if the IRS has published anything stating affirmatively that the waiver for RMDs for 2009 does not apply to defined benefit plans? I’ve seen Notice 2009-9, which mentions applicability to individual account plans, but this is not something that the average participant will understand.

Further, there is a problem that many “experts” are telling participants that the waiver does apply to all plans. The experts include the usual financial advisors, but it also includes the people on the IRS phone lines (including people who are serving as specialists). On IRS.gov, there is a publication that says generically that the waiver applies to qualified retirement plans. I even called the IRS number myself and spoke to a “specialist” who swore that the waiver applied. Participants are refusing to take RMDs, and we need to find something in writing that says in a straightforward manner that pension payments must occur.

I wrote to RetirementPlanQuestions@irs.gov (mentioned in Notice 2009-9) yesterday, but I haven’t heard back yet.

Company has a maximum leave policy in place for employee's out on leave, whether it's medical or personal. If an employee choose not to return from leave, is that voluntary or involuntary for COBRA ARRA subsidy purposes? For example, female goes out on maternity leave & chooses to stay home after she has the baby, but does not actually resign. That appears to be voluntary.

However, what happens to the employee who has exhausted all available leaves, but is medically unable to return to work? Our company policy says they are separated from employment if they don't return once all leaves are exhausted, and we let them stay out for a very generous period past what is legally required before reaching this point. Also, who determines medically able at this point since the employee has been separated & we aren't really inthe position to request medical records anymore?

This is a blurry line and I wondered if anyone else has run into these types of situations & how you responded. We've already had one employee file an appeal, and while I don't want to get into a lawsuit over COBRA, I also dont' want to set a precedent that could cost us much more in the future.

Is there any reason you can see that successor liability would apply in the following situation?

Company has a frozen pension plan, 98% funded as of 12/31/08. Company is selling all assets in 1 of the many states in which it operates. Purchaser is accepting all employees, but is concerned about potential successor liability under the pension plan. The employees being transferred to the purchaser constitue less than 4% of the total workforce, and less than 2% of pension plan participants, so there is no partial plan termination. Transferred employees will be treated as any other separated employee under the seller's pension plan.

Is there any reason the purchaser should be concerned about liability under this plan? Any other issues that this coudl create?

I have a top-heavy 401k plan that is terminating its safe-harbor match for the rest of 2009 due to significant business decline.

Since the plan is top-heavy, what is the required top-heavy contribution for 2009 for the NHCEs if the HCEs have not made any 401k deferrals in 2009?

There are no other types of contributions to the plan.

An employer has an existing SH plan. The company will be hiring a new group of employees that will be in its own class, e.g., trainers. The company doesn't have any trainers now. The employer wants to exclude this classification of employees from the plan. Excluding the trainers won't cause the plan to fail coverage, but I'm wondering about the Safe Harbor aspect of the plan. I'm thinking that this group must get a Safe Harbor contribution once the age and service requirements are met, even though they might be excluded from getting any additional discretionary contribution. Am I right?

I'm an actuary at a firm that provides tpa services for small pension plans.

We have clients come in to get their tax work done after the fiscal year is complete in many cases.

They come in and say they had a bad year and can' afford to contribute to their pension.

Based on PPA there iss't much we can do for the j ust completed plan year due to the unit credit cost method. Sure I can freeze their plan immediately, but for the just ended year it doesn't necessarily help.

If the plan were frozen at the beginning of the just completed year it would have helped some, but that can't be done.

So if I report a plan minimum required contribution of say 50k in such a situation, the client isn't happy and my employer isn't happy as we may lose a disgruntled client who might go elsewhere to get the answer he wants. So in conclusion from the client and my employer's point of view I'm the bad guy.

Any suggestions?