This is an attempt (of course, use at your own risk - but someone has to try to make life a little easier) at generating the required participant quarterly notice.

In order for this report to work, the user fields in Plan Specs would have to be coded as follows:

Date field 26 = date vesting was last updated

alpha field 29 = hours needed to accrue a year of service (e.g. 1000)

alpha field 31 = vesting yr 1 (e.g. 0%)

alpha field 32 = vesting yr 2

alpha field 33 = vesting yr 3

alpha field 34 = vesting yr 4

alpha field 35 = vesting yr 5

alpha field 36 = vesting yr 6

must have something in these fields, e.g. put 100% fields 4 5 and 6 if fully vested after 4 years.

alpha field 37 = no if plan is not subject to permitted disparity.

This report will look at ees years of service and compare to the alpha field to print vesting %.

of course some modifications would always be necessary. this particular statement says you are always 100% vested in your deferral account and any rollover. If you have QNECs, safe harbor, etc you would have to add that as well.

Have a client who is age 51 and wants to know if she should retire, take her money and run before the new rules kick in ( for calculating lump-sum payments).

She is also trying to determine amounts , should she stay with the company until age 59 1/2.

Anyone know of a calculator that uses the new rules?

I searched high and low, but no luck.

Is the 4/1/07 deadline for RMD's pushed to 4/2/07 because the first is a Sunday? I have been searching everywhere for some written guidance, but can't find anything. If your answer is yes, do you have a cite?

thanks!

Annie

1. A welfare benefit plan has stop-loss coverage. It's the plan's initial year. The PYE is 06/30/06, and the insurance contract year ends on 12/31/06.

2. Known - The plan administrator must check the "Insurance" box as a funding arrangement and segregate the stop-loss premiums on Schedule H, Line 2e(2).

3. Known - Schedule A is required. The plan administrator reports the information for the insurance contract year that ends within the plan year.

4. Not known - What happens when there's no Schedule A information? This is the plan's initial year, and the first insurance contract year won't end until halfway through the plan's second year.

The DOL software will do an edit check, notice the lack of a Schedule A, and issue a letter to the plan administrator. Is there any way to avoid the letter? Or, would you simply alert your client to expect a DOL letter, and then respond to it after it's arrived?

I can't get anyone at EBSA to return my calls. (The EBSA employees might not have a clean and simple answer.)

Regs. allow for a 2% administration fee to be charged on the cobra election. I have written provisions in PD allowing cobra participants to conbribute pre tax all or a portion of their cobra election from final paycheck.

My husband divorced in February/2001 after 17 years of marriage. We married in May/2006. He retired in Aug/2006. The ex filed a QDRO in August/2006 and received a "non-qualified" response in Sept/2006 citing several reasons, the last being he is receiving benefits under a joint plan and she was not named as the surviving spouse. He received a court order to modify the QDRO to comply with Fidelity's response to the non-qualified. In the order her lawyer stated that the wife filed immediatley after divorce but it was not acknowledged by General Motors. So 5 years later they filed again. The judge signed the modified QDRO stating the ex is entitled to pension benefits. She is requesting that she be made the alternate payee and given surviving spouse status for the lifetime of the benefits. The order also states that if the Administrator does not accept this revised order, they and my huband must make the modifications to so that his ex can be given the benfits and status. Right now we are waiting on a decision from Fidelity. I know this will not end. What are our options?

Plan sponsor is terminating 401(k) plan and a profit sharing plan. I know that general rule is that you cannot distribute participant's account balance without consent if greater than $5,000. What happens if the participant, for whatever reason, does not make distribution election? Since all assets need to be distributed within one-year, can the plan sponsor just send these participants lump sum checks? How long must sponsor wait for participants to make an election?

My former employer (known for being somewhat aggressive) taught that when forcing out a participant the distribution had to be processed after 30 days, but before 90 days (pre PPA06) had passed from giving the distribution notice. My new employer says that there is a special rule that requires that force outs to be processed only after the 90 (now 180) days have passed. I have not been able to find anything that says that force out rules are different than regular distributions as far as the notice requirements. Have I missed something?

A participant is a musician in a loud band. An audiologist has recommended ear plugs to prevent hearing loss. Do you think this is a qualified expense?

Is the tax credit still available to companies who sponsor new retirement plans? Is it $500? Thanks!!!!!

We have a self-insured medical plan that includes 4 different medical options and a separate dental option. All options are contained in the same plan (1 plan document, 1 form 5500 filed for the plan), but the employee must make separate elections to be covered under both medical and dental. If an employee terminates and elects COBRA for medical coverage only -- he declined COBRA for dental even though he had dental coverage as an active employee -- must we allow the former employee to elect dental coverage at the next open enrollment period? I know he must be allowed to switch to a different medical option at OE if he desires, but if he doesn't have COBRA coverage for dental at the time of open enrollment, must he be allowed to elect dental at OE?

A 401(k) owns an interest in a business (e.g., LLC, LP, etc.).

The owners want to remove the business interests from the 401(k) by buying out the interests (at book value).

Would this be a PT?

I have found a vast amount of literature detailing the mechanics of how you use a 401(k) or IRA to invest in companies but nothing regarding how you get the business interests OUT of the 401(k) account or IRA. Is it as simple as buying out the interest?

There is not much information about grandfathered governmental 401(k) plans. A 457 governmental plan combines both the employee pre-tax and employer dollars for the 402(g) deferral limit. I assume that if the plan is a grandfathered governmental 401(k) plan that only the employee pre-tax dollars are counted towards the 402(g) limit. Does anyone have a cite or IRS procedure/Notice that states how these are treated.

Also, Form W-2 also does not mention how to treat grandfathered governmental 401(k) plans. I assume the employer would only report the employee pre-tax deferrals in Box 14 as Code D; employer contributions would not be reported at all. A 457 governmental plan would report both employee pre-tax and employer dollars as Code G.

I have a client who made $15K of Roth 401(k) deferrals in 2006 based upon his guaranteed payment income.

Now his accountants have finished his tax returns, and although he has the guaranteed payments, he has negative self-employed income.

I know in a regular 401(k) this would keep him from being able to make 401(k) deferrals. Do you also have to have s/e income to make Roth deferrals?

Thanks!

I'm currently on the fence regarding a future career in pension plan consulting and I'm trying to decide between going for an MBA (and potentially choosing a different career) or going through all the certifications required for a CPC designation from ASPPA.

I guess this is more or less just a general question, but as far as the ASPPA designations go, how useful are they in landing a job/preparing for a future career?

As always, I appreciate any and all feedback. Thanks guys.

A sponsor maintains a pension plan(plan number 001), several years later they are sold a 401(k). The seller, fully knowing the existence of the pension plan, assigns plan number 001 to the 401(k). Any suggestions on changing the pn for the 401(k)?

Hi! I'm looking for the language that states that when an employee terminates;

1. S/he is eligible for payment of the entire annual election as long as expenses were incurred during the plan year and while employed

2. The employer is not due repayment for any amounts over the contributions into the plan (i.e. annual election= $2000.00, terminates after only contributing $300.00 submits valid claim for $1500.00 - the employee does not have to pay back the employer the $1200.00 that was not contributed into the plan, but still paid out to the employee.)

If anyone can direct me to the IRS language that describes this, I'd be greatful!!! Thanks in advance.

Jeremy Davis

My employer made a contribution in March of 2007 for a profit share plan for the calender year 2006. For IRA deductibility purposes am I considered covered by a defined contribution plan for the year 2007 or 2006?

In 1.410(b)-7©(1), a "plan that consists of elective contributions under a section 401(k) plan, employee and matching contributions under a section 401(m) plan, and contributions OTHER THAN ELECTIVE, EMPLOYEE OR MATCHING CONTRIBUTIONS is treated as three separate plans for purposes of section 410(b)."

Does anyone have thoughts on what the capitalized lang has been interpreted to mean?

Facts: Company A and B are part of a controlled group that sponsors a single 401(k) plan. There are two separate lines of business, and the company qualifies for QSLOB status but has not yet declared as a QSLOB.

The Plan states in the section regarding the employer contribution formula that "For each Plan Year, the Employer shall contribute to the Plan ... on behalf of each Participant who is eligible to share in matching contributions for the Plan Year, a discretionary matching contribution equal to a uniform percentage of each such Participant's Deferred Compensation, the exact percentage, if any, to be determined each year by the Employer ..." A participant is eligible for a match if he has attained age 21. Companies A and B are both "Employers" under the plan.

Company A is doing well and wants to contribute a match for 2006. Company B cannot afford to. In order to contribute a match for one group and not the other, I believe the plan's match formula or match eligibility provision would have to be amended (otherwise, under the above formula, all participants would be entitled to the match once the percentage is declared).

Question: can a plan be amended retroactively to revise a matching formula -- i.e. to state that the match can be provided to employees of one Employer and not the other? Something tells me it's too late to amend to do so for 2006.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.