If neither the participant or alternate payee have legel representation, then is it ok that the QDRO is not signed by an attorney? Is it ok that the DRO is just signed by the court and approved by the Plan to become a QDRO?

I am taking the ASPPA RPF-1 QKA test, and there are a few questions that don't seem to be covered in the material anywhere. Could someone point me in the right direction? I'm not asking for the answers, just suggestions, maybe, of something I might be overlooking.

Question 1.) All of the following statements regarding parties involved in plan operation are TRUE, EXCEPT:

A.) A retirement plan administration firm may provide ministerial functions

B.) A retirement plan consultant may be hired to perform the Form 5500 audit.

C.) An ERISA attorney may be hired to draft the plan document.

D.) An accountant may be employed to provide payroll services.

E.) A broker may be hired to provide participant investment advice.

I've found material in the textbook that supports ALL of these scenarios, and yet one must be false. What are your thoughts? Thanks in advance.

I have come across a question that I would guess has a relatively easy solution, but I cannot seem get my arms wrapped around it. I have a calendar year 401(k)/PSP. It has only the two sources: 401(k) and profit sharing. The elig and entry date for the two sources is as follows: 401(k) – Age 21/1YOS, entering monthly; PSP – Age 21/1YOS, entering on 1/1/ and 7/1. (At this point, no allocation conds. for the PS.) The plan defines compensation as while a participant in each specific source. The plan excludes a division of employees from all sources. When the ratio test is performed for coverage (for both sources), it fails. (No fail-safe language.) Therefore, we need to run the ABT. My question is which compensation do I use to complete the ABPT? Comp for the entire year? Comp while a ptp in the 401(k) portion? Comp while a ptp in the PS portion?

The example is as follows: Person is hired on 2/1/2007; They are eligible for the 401(k) on 2/1/2008; they are eligible for the PS on 7/1/2008. When the ABPT is run, do I use 1/1/2008—12/31/2008 or 2/1/2008—12/31/2008 or 7/1/2008—12/31/2008. Is it optional? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I have a client that is asking why an older employee (85) is still receiving a profit sharing contribution when he "closed out his participation in the plan". (He was fully distributed, not terminated.) The plan is top heavy and crosstested, so the employee receives the greater of the top heavy minimum or the gateway.

Client now wants to exclude him from the plan. My only concern is that he is 85 years old. He (the employee) has stated that he doesn't want to receive any further contributions. In the event that there were a DOL or IRS audit, what are the chances that this would become an issue if the employee is the one saying he wants out? (Plan passes coverage/non-discrimination easily without him.)

Is there any quideance regarding how current the fee information must be?

I have an employee who asked whether he could submit for reimbursement his payment of his daughter's health insurance premiums. She is not on his family policy but she is regarded as a dependent under the code and for income tax reporting purposes.

Any help would be appreciated. Tx.

Could someone please provide a brief (I know with this topic it's not necessarily easy) description of the difference between Funding and FAS 87 and under what circumstances is a FAS 87 valuation required? Thank you!!

I have an employer who has two plans, a MP and a SH401k. The MP contribution was frozen 9 months into the year, so I will be using comp only for that period. My SH401k plan will have teh full year comp. How do you use two different compensations (periods) for the same employer?

Hello All,

We are a closed mid-sized plan with a mainframe system to track pay, hours and purchased time. We are looking for a replacement. We have about 1400 active participants. Payroll function are handled on a separate system. Can anyone suggest names of firms to provide computer systems that, at a minimum, track pay, hours worked, purchased creditable service and basic demographics on plan participants?

Thanks in advance,

Jim

If a company is a non-ERISA Church plan that uses a Group Custodial Agreement in lieu of a plan document.

Can the company implement specific hardship provisions (e.g. using safe harbor reasons, requiring employees provide proof of need) without an amendment?

Let us assume that I have a 2009 quarterly contribution requirement of $200,000 per quarter. Let us also suppose that I have a 2008 remaining FSCOB of $800,000. Let us suppose that on 4/1/2009, the Plan Sponsor elects to use the FSCOB to satisfy the 2009 quarterly requirements.

Assume that our 2008 AFTAP was 95%, so on 4/1/2009 it goes to 85% which means no 436 restrictions. Then on 8/1/2009 we complete the 2009 valuation and determine that the AFTAP is 65%. However if we burn $400,000 of the 2008 FSCOB (which is mandatory) then this AFTAP would increase to exactly 80%. But, we have already elected to use the FSCOB to meet the 2009 quarterlies. What are our choices?

1. Too late to burn any FSCOB for AFTAP purposes, since all $800,000 are already "spoken for" due to our FSCOB election?

2. We burn the balance of the FSCOB remaining as of the date of AFTAP certification which would leave no further FSCOB remaining for the final 2 quarterlies of 2009 but would avoid any 436 benefit restrictions because we our AFTAP for 2009 would increase to 80%?

3. Anything else you can think of?

Can anyone name some tax court cases upholding the importance of an updated plan document? Please give specific citations if not inconvenient.

Does anyone know of any lawsuits where a plan sponsor (e.g., an employer who had retirement plan) sued a third party administrator who had the duty to update the plan for new laws and said third party administrator did not perform that duty?

A company implements a 401k plan year with its first plan year being 12/1/07 through 11/30/08.

The employee earns compensation of $20,000 for December 2007 and defers $15,500 into the 401k plan for the plan year beginning 12/1/07.

The employee is set to earn $20,000 for November 2008.

The employee wants to defer $15,500 of the 11/2008 compensation to the 401k plan under the premise that it is within the 2008 tax year limits.

Is this permitted?

Or is this not allowed under the premise that the deferral limit for the plan year ending 11/30/08 was met back in December 2007 and thus not allowing any more deferrals for that plan year?

Thanks.

Can someone please confirm that it would be permissible to setup a new one participant defined benefit plan for a sole proprietor effective 12/31/07 with a 12/31/07 to 12/30/08 plan year and use the pre-PPA funding rules for the first year. The deduction for the plan year ending 12/30/08 would be taken on the 2008 tax return. This would avoid the use of the PPA funding rules effective in 2008 and result in a larger contribution for the first year.

1/3 owner (Guy) of Glass Company. Defers max ($15,500) in Glass 401(k) Plan. No related other owners.

Same guy: 100% owner of Stone Company. Defers max ($15,500) in Stone 401(k).

Guy wants to pick which plan will return the 402(g) excess.

Looks like Glass plan will fail ADP (breaks), but the Stone plan will pass (solidly).

Can Guy have the 402(g) excess refunded entirely from the Glass Plan? If so, will any of that deferral count in Glass plan's ADP test?

Anyone have a link to the tables in IRS Notice 2008-85, in csv or xls format?

P.S. I did not see anything here: http://xtbml.soa.org:8080/xtbml/jsp/index.jsp

Can anyone point me in the direction of a checklist for a model investment management agreement for an ERISA plan?

Thanks!

Can anyone point me in the direction of a checklist for a model investment management agreement for an ERISA plan?

Thanks!

I'm writing this because I'm curious about the number of potential problems out there, and because I want to make a one-time offer to small businesses who are subject to the ADP test for the first time ever.

Did your company change to a Non-safe-harbor plan this year? If you answer "yes", don't give the name of your company IE: Don't attract that kind of attention to yourself. I'm just curious if the reports are exaggerated. I hope they are!

I have read some articles talking about 401ks that are not funding matches due to uncertain economic times. This means many companies will be subject to the ADP/ACP test for the first time. HCEs (who never heard of anti-discrimination rules) will be forced to take a large refund next year, unless something is done before the end of the year.

To help mitigate this problem, I’m offering a 3 month subscription to my ADP/ACP testing site for $29.

401ktest.com is designed to accommodate companies with 200 employees or less. It works with larger companies, but some of the features become hard to use; like the feature allowing you to (drag and drop employees from one category to another) during the testing process.

Don’t let the price scare you. This site works! I was just told yesterday that it functions better than the more expensive sites. It’s been up and running for 14 months now.

Without preliminary testing, this spring could be a compliance nightmare for newly adopted non-safe harbor plans!

To the moderator:

If this is the wrong way to make this offer to your readers, please contact me regarding a more appropriate way to get this information out before Christmas bonuses are written, and officers make that last big contribution to their plans.