We have 5,000 employees and 10 different pension and welfare benefit plans. Not each employee is a participant in all 10 different benefit plan. To ease distribution, can we send all 10 SARs in a single envelope, or even combine the SARs with a caveat they may not all be participant in all of the plans? We are not using electronic disclosure.

I have a client with plan year 10/1/06 to 9/30/06 and wants to max out profit sharing contribution. The TPA tells me that we are limited to 2005 max contribtion of $42K as opposed to 2006 max contribution of $44K.

Please advise? If 44K is ok, how do I prove to TPA?

Thanks

My co-workers and I are currently working on a new transfer plan. The document has the plan set up as a multiple employer (with adopting employers). Each adopting employer has a separate set of eligibility requirements..and 3 out of the 4 adopting are a brother sister controlled group. The TPA that this plan is transferring from has been running this plan as three separate plans and has submitted 3 separate Form 5500s and related schedules. Now my understanding is that a multiple employer has only 1 Form 5500 submitted and controlled groups are tested together. Is this correct?

Now if the employer decides to stick with the 3 separate plan setup... they will need to have 3 separate documents, one for multiple employer to cover the 4th company, correct?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!

-Rachael

IF a plan freezes accruals for participants whose age plus service are less than 50 and freezes accrual service for those whose age plus service is at least 50 (but recognizes compensastion increases), must that plan fully vest the under 50 group?? Thanks.

What about the distribution of a roth on the principal contribution: ex. 2 years ago I converted $5000 to a roth. I am sure it has earned on the capital. Will there be a penalty if I take a $1000 distribution from the principal amount? I am only 56 and the account is 2.5 years old. The money is to pay off the mortgage of rental property.

Has anyone seen a sample of the new law diversification notice to be given by 11/30/2006 for calender year ESOPs plans.

I have a ROTH IRA that has been set up since 2001 and am curious about what types of investments can be utilized as part of the ROTH program. I can't seem to find an IRS publication or information elsewhere on the internet. Can an investment in a private small business be used?

Does anyone have any experience in naming allocation groups for a new comparability plan something along the lines of "every participant" employed by the end of the plan year? The ultimate goal is for each employee of the company (less than ten total) to make up their own individual allocation group. I have done this once in the past, and named each employee into the plan document. Of course, the problem with this is that if one person leaves or joins the company, a brand new amendment must be passed.

It is my inclination that we wouldn't receive a determination letter for simply listing that every one employed is their own allocation group. If anyone has any experience in this, or even better, a cite to a reg or announcement regarding this issue would be much appreciate.

Thanks in advance to everyone!

Ok.So I know that I would be considered a fiduciary if I am an investment advice, and provide investment advice to the plan.

But what if I do not hold the assets, they are at another financial institution, and the plan hires me to provide investment advice to participants? I cannot be considered an interested party – right? If so, that would mean that the exceptions under the Pension protection act would not really apply to me, as it seems that it applies only when you want to sell the plan assets at your broker-dealer or owned by your broker-dealer – right?

An elementary question.

What's the difference between W-2 wages and Section 3401(a) wages?

Corbel prototype & volume submitter documents have 3 options to select from for defining "Compensation":

a) Wages, tips and other comp for Form W-2.

b) Section 3401(a) wages (wages for withholding purposes).

c) 415 Safe-harbor comp.

For the world me I cannot figure out the difference between option a & b!? Aren't the W-2 wages also the wages subject to withholding?

In designing a welfare plan I am trying to assess the level of benefits.

For example regarding pre-retirement death benefits, they can be funded by life insurance and of course require annual premiums.

However, any suggestions regarding a value for the level of benefits for post-retirement medical or long term care insurance.

For example say normal retirement is age 55 and I want to establish a reserve by the employee's normal retirement age. How can I determine a reasonable level of reserve to target for post-retirement medical costs (inclusive of an insurance policy), or long term care costs (inclusive of an insurance policy).

For example if post retirement medical costs consist of health insurance and other out of pocket costs, then there must be a target dollar reserve that would cover these expenses over the course of the retiree's life time. For example perhaps $300,000 might cover the life time expense. So an annual deduction to accumulate to $300,000 would be necessary. Likewise for long term care.

Any help or reference to statistical data resources would be appreciated.

Thank you.

In designing a welfare plan I am trying to assess the level of benefits.

For example regarding pre-retirement death benefits, they can be funded by life insurance and of course require annual premiums.

However, any suggestions regarding a value for the level of benefits for post-retirement medical or long term care insurance.

For example say normal retirement is age 55 and I want to establish a reserve by the employee's normal retirement age. How can I determine a reasonable level of reserve to target for post-retirement medical costs (inclusive of an insurance policy), or long term care costs (inclusive of an insurance policy).

For example if post retirement medical costs consist of health insurance and other out of pocket costs, then there must be a target dollar reserve that would cover these expenses over the course of the retiree's life time. For example perhaps $300,000 might cover the life time expense. So an annual deduction to accumulate to $300,000 would be necessary. Likewise for long term care.

Any help or reference to statistical data resources would be appreciated.

Thank you.

Folks:

I came across a case today in which an organization named Coalition America was mentioned. Apparently, CA functions as some type of clearinghouse (sort of like The Connector in MA) in which it has various insurers as clients. For example, assume CA does business with insurers A and B. Then every provider who has a contract with insurer A also has a contract with insurer B, and vice versa.

Anyone familiar with this type of practice?

Don Levit

I have a client that has a 401(k) Cross-tested Safe harbor plan. They just informed us this week that they decided not to do the safe harbor and they elected not to send out the safe harbor notice last year for the 2006 plan year. I think they thought it would save them $$. In any event, they are failing the ADP/ACP with hefty ($4,000+) refunds to all 8 of the HCE's and I was wondering what if anything could be done. Historically they have allocated an 8% employer contribution with the 3% non-elective and an additional 5%. As the safe harbor is the 3% NE and would have no effect on whether the employees deferred (as opposed to the SH Match), is there ANY way they can opt for the SH for 2006 now even thought they did not notice the employees back in December? Any assistance/guidance would be greatly appreciated.

These darn pesky clients, you can't educate them and you can't bury them in your back yard and say they went out of business.

what do you think about the following:

there is a CBA in effect that expires 12.31.2007. the CBA covers EE that were employed by a company that, subsequently, has merged with a new company.

the new company does not want to participate in the CBA, as it is currently drafted. the acquiring corp would prefer to integrate all NEW EE entering the union into an already-existing profit sharing plan, which it has been administering for several years, to minimize book-keeping headaches. so, in effect, you would have a union that has "grandfathered" EE under the old 12.31.2007 CBA and new employees hired subsequent to the corporate restructuring in a profit sharing plan.

can we "bifurcate" members of a single union? is there a famous case out there involving Central States Pension Plan?

thanks in advance for any insight you might be able to provide.

Would an employer that was established on Sept. 15 be able to set up a Safe Harbor 401(k) plan?

Plan participant dies and plan sopnsor cannot locate beneficiary form. He was single with no children. The plan doc says beneficiary without a form is parents and then estate. Parents are still living.

The plan sonsor received a letter from an attorney asking for the participant's balance to be made payable to his estate. She attached the Probate of Will from the court naming his sisters as executrix's of his estate. Does this document override the plan doc so that the distribution to the estate can be done? And is there a time frame that this must be done within (the participant just died this summer)?

Thanks for any help.

Can someone tell me if Box 5 on the Form W-2 includes Section 125 deferrals?

Thank you!

Is there anything that would prohibit a VEBA from paying premiums on a fiduciary insurance policy? ERISA Section 410(b) allows a plan to purchase insurance for its fiduciaries as long as the insurance permits recourse against the fiduciary, so it appears to be OK under ERISA. Just wondering if there is anything under the Code's VEBA rules that would prohibit this.

I have a controlled group where the owner is thinking of making a matching contribution for one company but perhaps not the others. I assume this is possible as long as it can pass the nondiscrimination and coverage tests. Please help me understand specifically what I need to know about how we would make sure I know what testing guidelines I should be paying attention to. I'm not even sure I'm asking the question in the right way.

Thanks.