Hi, I am hoping that someone here has the expertise to provide me with some assistance.

My former employer changed 401K plans in March of 2006. Through a piece of random correspondence, I am now finding this out as well as that my investment allocations were not mapped, and everything was put into a cash management fund with a very low return.

My question is- is the company obligated under ERISA (or anything else) to a- Map my account investments appropriately (my fund allocations that appear on my 12/31/05 statement from the old vendor appear exactly as choices with the new company) or b- should they have made their best effort to notify me of the change? I have not moved and I have received other correspondence from them during this time so I know that they had my address.

Thanks for the help!

client will be 70.5 in January 2007. He has a plan himself but also works for a totally different company. We will take the RMD from his plan no later than 4/1/2008 but since he is not an owner of the company sponsoring the other plan and is still actively employed he is not required to take a RMD from that plan.... correct?

also, His plan is a MP... other plan is a 401K.

Any faults in my reasoning pointed out or observations appreciated!

Thanks

Safe Harbor Plan using the Basic Match to satisfy ADP

Currently no other contributions.

If not SH, Plan would be top heavy.

If not SH, Plan would be fail ADP.

I have a plan with the following employees

Owner 1 - 40% - Comp 220000

Owner 2 - 40% - Comp 220000

Owner 3 - 10% - Comp 200000

Owner 4 - 5% - Comp 180000

Owner 5 - 3% - Comp 160000

Owner 6 - 2% - Comp 140000

3 Other HCEs

20 NHCEs

The top owner want to change the SH to the 3% SHNEC. He wants to provide it to the following:

all NHCEs

the 3 Other HCEs

Owner 6

Owners 1 and 2.

If Owners 3-5 make their quotas, he also wants to reserve the right to provide them with a 3% NEC. (They are not required to receive any contribution b/c they are keys and the plan will exclude keys from getting T-H minimum.)

Can I draft a plan provides the 3% SHNEC as stated above? If so, do I do so by excluding Owners 3-5 out of that portion of the plan? If so, I figure I can say that any owners under 40% making more than 150,000 are excluded from participation. (This is also how a plan on writing the tiers to maximize Owners 1 and 2.)

Is there any additional info or idea anyone can suggest? Any help is greatly appreciated.

A company sets up a multiple employer retirement plan as a leasing organization. It gets a favorable determination letter for the plan. 25 adoption agreements are signed by 25 separate employers under the master plan.

How many 5500s are due? One for the master plan, including information for all 25 employers? Or should each of the 25 employers be filing its own 5500?

I have been informed that a termed employee wants to roll their money into their current employers 401(k). It appears that the prior administrator put a stop on the account, in anticipation of receiving a DRO back in 2001. The ppt. can not roll over the money because of the stop. I found no record of a QDRO and the trustee says that there has been no transfer of funds.

Does anyone have any suggestion as to I should receive from the ppt. so that I can remove the stop? Divorce decree?

Your assistance is greatly appreciated.

Employee is over 65 and entitled to Medicare. Employee was on short term disability but will shortly move to long-term disability. When this occurs, the employee will lose medical coverage. Employee does not currently intend to retire or otherwise terminate employment.

Has a COBRA qualifying event occurred because medical coverage was lost because of a reduction in hours (to 0)? Or is the employee not entitled to COBRA?

Any other considerations that I should be aware?

Thanks.

One of the fund choices in a 401k plan is bankrupt. For awhile, the fund continued to report the fund value at a certain value, but then later paid out 75% of this reported value (meaning 75% of this last reported value was liquidated and forwarded to the trustees, not paid paid out of the plan).

This iinvolves a smaller plan. Is there anything that needs reported, via schedule I or otherwise in regard to this transaction? Would the affected participants simply show a 25% loss on this fund to their account balance?

Thanks

401(k) plan wants to provide additional flexibility to participants with respect to distribution options which would require a plan amendment (for instance, permitting in-service distributions). Plan permits such flexibility with respect to a participant early in the plan year, but doesn't actually formally amend until later in the same plan year to permit (with a retroactive effective date of Jan 1).

Is this a case where plan should submit the amendment to VCP under EPCRS to correct an operational defect? Or, can this be classified as a discretionary plan amendment that is considered timely adopted b/c adopted by the end of the plan year in which it is effective (under Rev. Proc. 2005-66, 5.05(3))? How strong an argument is there for the latter?

If an employee dies with a balance in his HFSA account, can beneficiaries be reimbursed for expenses incurred after the employees death or are they limited to reimbursements for expenses incurred pre-death. Thanks in advance.

Please help clarify! What is the proper amount an employer should report in Box 10 of the W2 form--DCAP amounts contributed or elected for the year? What happens if an employee is terminated mid-year? Any discussion on this topic would be most helpful!

First let me say that I know NOTHING about weflare plans. I'm not even sure this question makes sense....However, we have a client that has a self-insured plan. They have an owner employee that went on Medicare beginning in January of this year. He is paying his medicare premiums. However, it was his intention to have his RX drugs paid from the self insured plan. He has been paying for them personally. Can he submit his receipts for RX he purchased during the year to the Welfare plan and be reimbursed? Sorry if this is a stupid question. Thanks.

A colleague is studying for her ASPPA exams, and she has been given advice I do not agree with. For a new plan effective January 1, 2005, she has been told that there are no highly compensated employees due to compensation greater than $90,000. The reasoning is that there was no prior plan year. However, the company itself was started in 2000. Therefore, my argument is that there are HCEs based upon prior year's compensation since the look-back year is "the twelve month period prior to the determination year". In this instance, the calendar year election is immaterial since the plan year is the calendar year.

Can someone please clarify?

Thanks!

A plan sponsor of a self-funded group welfare plan wants to reimburse themselves for consulting fees on their plan. We are the TPA and feel this may be a prohibited transaction and are also concerned about our role in this request as a fiduciary. We bill the client by location and cut the checks for administrative expenses, stop loss, etc. They are requesting that we add an amount per member per month to the bill for their consulting on the plan and then once each location has paid, cut a check back to the company for that amount. They do contribute a good deal of time in the administrative aspect of the plan so therefore feel this is a justified expense to the plan. Has anyone ever run across this situation because we have never heard of this being done?

anyone think this is a problem: partner/doctor requests proposal from tpa/ria firm in which son-in-law is an employee. ultimately dr decides to hire tpa firm to administer and be ria to the plan.

When a medical claim is initially denied, ERISA requires that the claimant be informed, among other things, of the specific reason for the denial and that reference be made to the specific plan provisions. Does this mean a claimant must be informed to look, for example, at a specific page and heading of a plan booklet, or would it suffice to simply inform the claimant to review the general limitations and exclusions as set forth in the plan?

I have a plan(nursing home) that has been carrying account balances for as long as 30 years. Back then, no SS#'s were required for our software. The client has been trying to go through 30 years of records for the SS#'s since they are now shutting down the plan. Has anyone had a similiar situation? The letter forwarding program and automatic rollover program is useless without SS#'s. Any other alternative available to get the money out the plan with no SS#'s? Thanks.

Linda Michals

Plan covers both union/non-union employees and uses a non-safe harbor definition of comp for adp testing purposes. Does the union portion of the plan need a 414s test?

A participant in the multiemployer welfare fund has what is called a dollar bank and for each hour he works he earns an amount equal to the contribution rate for the Fund. Upon establishing the required contribution amount in his dollar bank, the participant becomes eligible for participation in the Fund. If the participant has a shortfall in his dollar bank, he is allowed to self-pay in order to maintain he coverage. If the participant has a balance in his Dollar Bank that does not meet the eligibility for coverage, and he does not choose to make self-payments to maintain coverage, the participant will be offered COBRA. If the participant does not elect COBRA and he does not provide documented proof that he is eligible and enrolled in other health coverage, any existing Dollar Bank balance will be forfeited.

Is it legal for the Fund to forfeit the participant's balance in his dollar bank keeping in mind that the contributions are part of a wage package?

Thanks

I find very often that prospective clients will tell me that they have funded a SEP already for the year, but are looking for a larger tax deduction. Of course they are just uninformed and don't realize that by funding the SEP prior to year end they have eliminated other planning opportunities.

I have heard "people" mention that if the SEP contributions are backed out as a mistaken contribution because the deposits were ineligible, you can then fund a qualified plan. I suppose this is more of a grey area, but I am looking to see what other people are advising clients.

The clients aren't looking to deduct contributions to both plans, its just that no one told them they shouldn't fund. In fact their financial advisor is probably telling them should fund as soon as possible to get the assets under management.

So what are you guys and gals doing? Is it just tough luck, you have to wait till next year?

My company is going to be implementing a FSA Debit Card for our clients. A question came up about when a participant disputes that a charge occurred. For example, participant walks into a drug store and swipes their card for $20. When they get their FSA Account Balance Statement, they see that there was 2 charges for $20. The card company that we are going through says that VISAs dispute process can take upwards of 180 days to make a determination. My question is what happens at the end of the year (and grace period if applicable) if it is determined that the $20 was a faulty item, and as a result, the $20 gets put back into the participants account. Since the plan year is technically over, they can not submit an expense to obtain that reimbursement for the $20. At that point is it forfeited based on the Use-it-or-lose-it rule? Can the money be returned back to the participant as part of a mistake clause or something like that? My concern with that is that they are then receiving tax free money without having an eligible expense. Can the money be returned, but then taxed? If that is the case, then W-2's and taxes would have to be redone at that point as well. Has anyone run into this before? Thank you in advance for your assistance.