well, its time to embaress yourself and show your age or tv viewing habits by identifying the following shows based on a line from their opening theme song.

Hey, I waited until Friday so I wouldn't 'mess up' anyone's week. ha.

ok, ok. even I knew and watched a bunch of these.

good luck.

#1: "Darlin', I love you but"

#2: "So go ahead, enjoy the view"

#3: "Enjoying each other's joys"

#4: "California is the place you wanna be!"

#5: "If you find some girl to love"

#6: "We've finally got a piece of the pie!"

#7: "Songs that made the Hit Parade"

#8: "And suddenly make it all seem worthwhile"

#9: "And oh what heights we'll hit"

#10: "And those with too ready a trigger"

#11: "They're altogether ooky"

#12: "Lots of curves, you bet!"

#13: "It sure isn't you!"

#14: "She may be pint sized"

#15: "Keep smilin' until then"

#16: "When the country was fallin' apart, Betsy Ross got it all sewed up!"

#17: "Daughter Judy"

#18: "Let's ride with the family down the street"

#19: "A hot dog makes her lose control!"

#20: "Brave, courageous and bold"

#21: "Tossed salads and scrambled eggs"

#22: "The youngest one in curls"

#23: "Tale of a fateful trip"

#24: "Watch out for that tree!"

#25: "Unless of course"

Just found out a client has MP & PS plans floating with Fidelity. No contributions for years, total of the two plans is under $100,000.

He now has a business (100% owner) with employees and a PS/401k plan.

Ignoring the GUST restatement issues, are the plans aggregated (say via controlled group rules) so that the two frozen plans are required to be filed?

I see in the instructions that an EZ would be unavailable due to controlled group, but are the assets aggregated to determine the filing requirement status on the dormant plans?

Thanks

I am attending a employee benefits conference this week in Cincinnati. Martin Pippins from the IRS stated that the DOL & IRS differ on how to calculate the "amount involved". The IRS position is that the "amount involved" is the interest & the DOL position is that it is the principal. He indictaed that guidance would be issued within the next few weeks, but would not tell what the guidance was going to say. Has anyone heard what that guidance will say?

Thanks in advance

Is there a requirement that a plan have a financial advisor? Client is a law firm and are choosing a daily trading recordkeeping platform that has educational tools and asset monitoring tools built into the website. Could they avoid the fees and simply go at it alone? Would the answer change if it were a small manufacturing company?

Note this is not a should they...but a could they question.

I have a client with 48 EEs. They have a Blue Shield fully insured HMO and PPO plan.They have one EE that has a spouse on Medicare that is also covered under the Blue Shield plan. In 2003, Medicare paid over 50K in claims as primary payer for the EE's spouse. The providers did not advise Medicare or did not know that another payer was involved or that Blue Shield should have been primary. Rather than contact the employee, CMS sent all the claims addressed to the employer saying that they were responsible since the group insurance should have been primary and Medicare paid in error.

CMS has hired a collection agency that has been harassing the employer. The employer did not even know that the employee had a spouse with serious illness and contends that they should not be held responsible. I sent the claims over to Blue Shield however my concern is that the claims are over one year old and they may decline payment. Also, the letterhead and the letterhead were CMS letterhead addressed to the employer. Could this be a sneaky way for a hospital to get payment or is it legit?

How can the employer be responsible when they were not aware of an individual medicare status or condition?. They cannot go to the hospital with the EE and their spouse in order to police their submission of the Blue Shield card along with the Medicare card. They cannot control what the provider does either and they are not aware of everyone's medical condition.

I contacted the collection agency and they told me that since the employer has a group insurance policy, they are responsible to pay back Medicare! zIt is fully insured so I don't know why that would be the case when insurance is not mandatory in Californua.

Blue Shield representative told me that they have had 3 cases like this in the last month and they have never seen it before. Is this how we are paying for the Medicare D prescription plan? It makes no sense to me. It would seem that if the statute of limitatons does not require Blue Shield to pay, that the EE would have to bear the responsibility. OR, does CMS realize that the employer will handle this in a more timely fashion and use this as a strategy to recoup the funds? Or is this a scheme where the provider and medicare collude to help the provider get back the funds? Would the employee/employer receive the Blue Shield contracted for aged claims (the contract was in force at the time of the claims)

No one has seen this before in my area, if anyone has an answer or any direction on this, please advise since i am sure there will be more cases like this one. Typically the employee is put into collections for claims not paid by the insurer and are the ones required to submit claim. Is this one of those bills that was attached to other legislation for the hospital lobby or something of that nature or the Medicare Reform Act 2004 that no one noticed but that will have serious repercussions to the employer? Thanks for any help in this. The employer doesn't want to hire an attorney yet since they are afraid they will be stuck with the bill.

I know this is probably a dumb question, but...

A participant in a 401(k) plan paid appx. $8,000 in UBTI from his earmarked account. He had an LLC as one of his investments that generated the UBTI. Was this OK to pay the tax from his earmarked account? As a general rule, who should pay the tax (e.g., the Plan Sponsor, the Plan, the participant)?

Thanks for any input!!

I work for a small firm that uses a cafeteria plan. There's been talk recently that we can use our cafeteria plan to pay college/graduate school tuition, which would be nice since several undergrads and graduates work here. I'm told the code at least opens the door for this possibility, but I can't find it. Does anyone know anything about this?

Does anyone know of a reason why a nonqualified pension plan cannot be amended to allow survivors a choice between installments or lump sum payment upon death of the employee? The plan presently only allows for installment payments. They would like to amend the plan to also allow for a lump sum payment and give the survivor a choice. Can the survivor make the choice upon the death of the employee? The way I read the deferral timing requirements of 409A, they only apply to the "service provider". Am I missing something? Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!

"A" and "B" (both corporations) constitute a controlled group of corporations. "A" sponsors a qualified retirement plan. "A" has authorized "B" to adopt "A's" plan and "B" has done so.

Due to a change in ownership, as of June 1, 2006 "A" and "B" ceased to constitute a controlled group of corporations. "A" and "B" do not wish to co-sponsor what would now be a multiple employer plan. "A" wants "B" out of "A's" plan and "B" wants to terminate its portion of "A's" plan.

Does anyone know the steps "A" and "B" must take in order to bring about the desired result?

A consultant has recommended that "B" implement its own plan and then spin-off the assets in "A's" plan attributable to it into the newly-established plan (and then terminate the newly-established plan). This seems unnecessary.

I currently own a small TPA Shop that specializes in defined contribution plans. A very good friend of mine owns a TPA Shop that specializes in defined benefit plans. During the normal course of events it came up that we should know what the value of our firms are, and what values should be applied to other "books of business" we might like to buy. Is there a standard formula that is used for this purpose, allowing for a reasonable estimate? I have heard values like 1-3 times annual revenue plus receivables. While I know that this type of transaction should only be done after consultation with some expert (who???), it would be nice to be able to have such an estimate going in. Anyone have any comments?

I'm posting this again in hopes someone will answer:

A client authorized his retirement plan to payout a terminated participant who terminated in early 2005. The document calls for payout to occur as soon as administratively possible AFTER plan year end (12/31 for this client's doc). The payout was made in May 2005. Discovery was made by the TPA once the 12/31/2005 valuation was being completed. The plan had earnings for 2005 (not losses). The TPA feels 2005 earnings should not be paid as the distribution was already made. The participant is still due a small payment of the 2005 contribution.

What type of possible problems exist and what type of correction can be made, if any at this point. Should the participant be made "whole" receiving 2005 earnings on his 12/31/2004 balance?

401(k) Plan moves from group annuity to another platform. All terminated participants with funds still in the plan were sent enrollment kits, blackout notice, website instructions, etc. to home addresses.

One particular employee who had been terminated for some time filled out the enrollment form and returned it to the employer. Employer misplaced it and did not send it to the TPA with the other enrollment forms. (Employer admits having received the form). TPA has no enrollment form for this employee and therefore "defaults" the employee to the plan default investment.

Nine months later, employee finally logs on to their account and realizes that the funds have been invested in default account, not according to his requested investments.

Is there any idea out there what responsibility the plan has to this former employee in terms of lost earnings? What time period would the employer be responsible for making up these earnings?

thanks

Hi. We have an employee with an outstanding loan whose status is changing from full time to part time. She is worried that some payperiods she may not have enough in her check to make the loan payments. She would like to be able to make up what she owes once every quarter by writing a personal check. I am trying to find out if this would be allowed.

Thank you.

A very small non-profit org wants to put in a DB plan but limit coverage to its director. There are only 2 other employees besides the director. The director will only be paid 60k per year and never likely much more than that and of course is not an owner of a non-profit org. I know for Key Employee def'n a person can be "deemed" a Key Employee based upon the specific facts of their position. Anyone know if there is a similar requirement in defining who is an HCE ? Can she be "deemed" an HCE by virtue of her position of power (Director) even though her comp is not sufficient and she has no ownership ?

The 401(k) plan sponsor wants to pass the investment advisory account fees onto the plan participants. Investments are self-directed, but pooled, so the TPA will prepare quarterly statements for the participants. Do the fees have to be shown separately on the participant statement, or can it be "netted" against the earnings?

Thanks

Can't believe the creativity people have when designing 401(k) plans. Here's a new one: Can a company establish a 401(k) plan such that participants can only make elective deferrals once a quarter? They have bi-monthly payroll and I assume participants would have $0.00 deferrals in 5 out of the 6 quarterly payrolls. Then, with payroll #6, they would have a set amount withheld. Participants choice as to whether they want to have 3 months worth of contributions taken out in that last payroll, or have some other fixed amount withheld.

I really don't know why they would want to do this, but I assume the employer thinks it will cut down on admin time for his HR person. Despite the nonsense of the whole idea, do you see anything "wrong" with it?

Can anyone recommend some sort of reference material regarding welfare plans? Like an "answer book". I looked on Panel Publisher's website, but did not see anything specific to welfare plans. Would that information be contained in another publication? Thanks.

The owner of a business with a DB plan is past normal retirement age. He received a lump sum of $2 mil based on the maximum 415 benefit limit on 12/31/05. The lump sum was calculated using 5.5% and 94 GAR.

The owner has continued to work. His compensation is 250,000. He is entitled to an accrual for 2006. The plan is being terminated as of 12/31/2006.

Question: How is the owner's accrued benefit as of the end of 2006 determined?

1. Profit sharing and/or 401(k) funds are rolled over into a DB or MP pension plan that includes a 401(h) feature. This apparently is not a Section 420 transfer of funds. Under these circumstances is a share of such funds allowed to become 401(h) account funds? Is it required?

2. Funds from a DB or MP plan are directly transferred into a profit sharing plan through merger. Are such funds still considered to be "pension" funds making them eligible to be transferred into a 401(h) account?

Not much guidance out there on these issues.

I am a TPA for a defined benefit plan that has only a husband and wife (owners and trustees of the plan) as participants. Well, apparently in 2005 they decided that they would take all but $134 out of the plan, unbeknownst to me of course. No termination paperwork was completed. No withholding was done. No 1099s were done. At this point, how do I even proceed?