After talking with HR and doing my own research, I need more help in answering this question:

Can I cancel my health plan benefit mid-term because my wife's open enrollment and plan term is different than mine? My open enrollment date is October 1st. My wife's is November 1st.

I can find a few websites that say yes, but cannot find an IRS or Treasury publication that talks about this.

The sad part is that I missed my company's open enrollment by 3 weeks and am looking at paying double coverage for 11 months. I know it is my fault for not staying on top of it, but I did not receive any notification from HR that the window was approaching/closing. I am a remote employee and it looks like I was not included on the distribution email lists and did not receive anything in regular post mail.

I appreciate any help or hints you can provide,

Eric

On 1/1/09 Employer X (3% nonelective safe harbor plan, plan year runs 7/1 to 6/30) is merging into Employer Y [non-safe harbor 401(k) plan, calendar year plan year]. Employer X's plan will into Y's plan on 1/1/09. If I am reading 1.401(k)(3)(e)(4) correctly, this merger would be similar to a termination and Employer X's plan would maintain its safe harbor status (as long as the safe harbor contribution is made through 12/31/08). Am I on the right track here?

Any other options out there, like merge the plans 6/30/09?

Recommendations or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks. Maverick

We have an employee who was capped at 15500 in out plan (not age 50) who contributed 600 in prior employer plan

She would like for us to refund the excess deferral from our plan.

She had been contributing 20% well above the max deferral % we match on, namely 6%.

We match each payroll which is weekly

I assume we don't have to worry about forfeiting any match on this excess deferral?

thanks

There is a state retirement system (which covers most of the state and municipality entities).

If one retires from one part of the state government, and then is employed with another instrumentality of the state, do any suspension of benefits rules kick in?

Does it matter whether the new job is from a different hiring office?

Does it matter that the former and prospective job is under the same state retirement system?

I know ERISA § 203(a)(3)(B) and the Code § 411(a)(3)(B) are the analogs to the governmental situation. But do the rules for governmental entities track ERISA §203(a)(3)(B)(i) ("other than a multiemployer plan") or ERISA § 203(a)(3)(B)(ii) ("multiemployer plan")?

In other words, if a person retires from one instrumentality of the state on Friday, can she pick up and work for another instrumentality of the state on Monday, and still be retired from the former entity she worked for on Friday -- even though the retirement system is the same?

Does the "same trade or craft" rules apply like in the multiemployer context, or is disqualifying employment based on the retirement system itself? What way is disqualifying employment classified in the state government context?

I guess another analog would be -- if someone retired from the U.S. DOL on Friday and was eligible for retirement payments, would he still be considered retired if he picked up and worked for the IRS on Monday? They would still be part of the same system (FERS).

Any help would be appreciated, with any relevant authorities. Thank you, once again!

BL

Took over another administrators plan and discovered Safe Harbor Match had been deposited as regular Match since 2004. Two individuals were paid out in 2004 and vesting schedule was applied to their Match accounts resulting in $150.05 and $390.65 being forfeited.

The two individuals obviously should have received these amounts. There is currently $3,000 in the forfeiture account. Question is how do I determine what these participants should receive 4 years later??? They should receive some sort of gain but how would that be calculated???

We have a client who submitted a proposed restatement of its plan for a GUST determination letter in 2002. They got the letter, which was conditioned on adopting the plan within 90 days of the date of the letter. The client never adopted the plan. I know we have a plan document failure, but my question is: will filing under VCP bring that old letter back to life (i.e., does VCP mean the restatement was adopted within 90 days and thus the letter is good?) or is that letter completely dead and we need to refile everything that we submitted for the determination letter application from 2002?

a current mpp plan wants to add a 401(k) deferral only option to the plan and maintain the current pension funding. in order to do this they will have to adopt a 401(k) plan doc and define the current pension formula as a profit sharing???? is this correct??? i don't recall any 401(k) docs having pension funding features in them. Any other steps I might be missing? Besides corp resolution and participant disclosure?

How does a plan's AFTAP affect the ability to fix a coverage or nondiscrimination failure by means of a corrective amendment under -11(g)? I think:

1. For a BOY valuation AFTAP (<= 80%, but not < 60%) has no effect, since the additional benefit is accrued at EOY, causing no increase in the FT as of the beginning of the year. Agree? Disagree?

2. For an EOY valuation the FT, assuming the AFTAP can be calculated @ EOY, the increase in the AFTAP would have to be fully funded to >=80%. If AFTAP can be calc'd at EOY-1, then same answer as 1 above?

What if AFTAP is <60%? Same reasoning in each insatnce?

Is anyone familiar with the rules under PPA or 430 regarding multiple DB Plans maintained by the same employer. If one us under-funded and others are not, should the plans be aggregated for purposes of determining funding liabilities and limits on lump sum distributions?

I know this is probably something I should already know. But I just got 6 off calendar year plans. And I am just not sure what COLA limits to use. The plan year is 9/1/2007-8/31/2008. When looking ahead to the next plan year, would I tell the client that the maximums are the 2008 Max. or the 2009 Maximums.

Does anyone know if you can specify that the first 3% in an integrated allocation is to be counted as a nonelective SH (or, alternatively, that a nonelective SH can count toward the total integrated allocation)? If it can be treated as SH in administration, is it something that needs to be specified in the document?

Any help would be appreciated.

457(f) participant was fully vested when contributions were made into 457(f) plans. Contributions were included in participant's income when made and participant has incurred a separation from service and will now be paid a lump sum distribution of his entire plan benefit which, due to investment losses, will be less than the amount of contributions previously made to the plan, and included in his income.

Under 72 does the participant end up with a loss he can use to offset other ordinary income in the year of the 457(f) distribution?

1. The following are the players in a fully-insured group medical plan.

Association (the policyholder)

Member of the association (an employer)

Participants (employees of Member)

Insurance company

TPA (claims administrator ...hired by insurance company)

PPO

QUESTION: Which of the above is a fiduciary of the plan?

2. Another Question:

Participant received medical services. TPA processed the claim. TPA tells participant that TPA mailed an EOB to participant timely, but participant cliams that he never received the EOB in mail. Participant calls TPA and requests TPA to e-mail a copy of that EOB to participant. TPA says it can't e-mail a copy... but will mail it again. Participant never gets it in mail. Participant calls TPA again and TPA accuses participant of being rude and hangs up on him.

How in the world is participant suppose to get the EOB? Does DOL even require that he must be given an EOB? Who has jurisdiction over requiring that an EOB be furnished to participant .... (DOL, State Insurance Dept, ???)

Does a plan have to recoup fraudulently induced benefit payments when the plan cannot show damages (i.e., if the money that was paid out pursuant to a fraudulent QDRO had stayed in the plan, its value would have decreased significantly due to current market conditions)? Accordingly, the plan actually benefitted from the money not being in the plan. Does the plan still have to recoup such payments? Is full restitution always required even where the plan benefits from the fraudulent payments due to a precipitous market downturn?

Hi,

We are offering a new HSA program at work this year and Bank of America has not provided us with a Salary Reduction Form (for employees to complete authorizing contributions directly from his/her paycheck to their HSA).

Does anyone have a sample form that I could look at before I take a stab at creating my own?

Thanks so much.

We offer single and family coverage An employee is currently covered under his spouse's health plan along with his dependent (she is a currently a student at a local university). He wants to enroll himself and student dependent in one of our health plans during OE to be effective 1/09. On 2/09, he wants to delete his student dependent as she will be enrolling in a health plan at her university (I am assuming that the semester begins again in Feb). This seems to be a qualifying event but we don't specifically state this in any of our documents.

Is this going to be the nightmare I imagine?

A company with about 130 participants and about 750 employees over a calendar year pays weekly. (Obviously, they have a high turnover.) They Plan on uploading contributions to the Investment company weekly. The office manager wants to send me payroll data only quarterly or twice a year. The Plan has age 21 and 500 hours in six months eligibility. I use Relius software.

I am thinking that if I receive the hours and comp weekly, Relius will do a huge amount of the work automatically. If I get the date 2 or 4 times a year, I think I will have to force a lot. Does anyone have any experience with this on this large a scale? (I do this with some plans with 5 people now)

I have 2 plans.

The first is a medical insurance plan which is fully funded by the employer . We have 17 people on the plan.

The second plan is a medical reimbursement plan which is self insured.

Question do these plans need to have 5500 filed?

Question the medical reimbursement plan has 2 shareholders which are greater than 2% employees. From what I have researched they can be in the plan, however it is deducted as wages not subject to fica and medicare taxes.

Question Is this correct?

My question deals with a 401(k) profit sharing plan participant who died at age 58 while employed. He did not sign a beneficiary designation form, but the plan has a default provision making his wife the sole designated beneficiary. The normal form of benefit is a QPSA, and the plan allows for optional forms, including LSDs. The plan does not have a provision allowing the spouse to change the form of benefit after the participant’s death. It does, however, allow direct rollovers to eligible retirement plans of eligible rollover distributions. My understanding is the spouse can postpone distributions until the participant would have reached age 70 ½. Could she, during this intervening period, directly roll over the account to an IRA in her own name, even if the benefit is slated to be paid in a QPSA form in 12 or so years? One part of this theory is that it is not yet being paid in substantially equal payments over her lifetime.

My life would have been much easier if the P & S had just signed the BD form!!! Thanks for any help.

We (TPA) are taking over the administration of a calendar year 401(k) Profit Sharing Plan that has a fixed match formula of 50% of deferrals up to 4% of pay (per the plan document). Anyone that defers gets the match - there is no last day or hours requirement.

For 2009 we would like to modify the the plan to provide for a discretionary match instead of the fixed match. Are we able to modify this provision as long as we give prospective notice (say, by December 1, 2008 for an effective date of January 1, 2009) or would this be a cutback that would trigger 100% vesting? Or?

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!!