A participant in a DC (money purchase) plan wants to rollover his money into an IRA since he was terminated from employment. The participant is divorced from his wife. The only reference to the pension plan is in the mediation agreement which was made part of the final divorce decree. It states that "if either party dies, the child shall be beneficiary of the husband's pension fund." There is no specific information in the agreement (child's name or information, plan name or information)

1. Shouldn't there have been a QDRO in this instance?

2. If not, can the money be rolled over?

3. Is the Fund obligated to protect the child's interest?

For a terminated plan, if there are participants who won't fill out the distribution paperwork but have balances greater than $ 1000, do we have to roll those balances or can we just send them a check? The new automatic rollover rules only seem to apply to terminated participant in ongoing plans.

A participant in a DC(money purchase) plan was terminated from employment and wishes to rollover into an IRA. He provided us with a divorce decree and mediated settlement agreement which states that should either party die, the child shall be the beneficiary of the husband's pension fund.

Can the fund allow the participant to roll the money in his account over to an IRA or must something be done to protect the child's interest?

Any assistance would be appreciated.

An employer uses a PEO for HR outsourcing, all employees are leased employees. Leased employees participate in the PEO 401(k) plan. The employer wishes to add a Defined Benefit Plan which would provide maximum benefits to the owners and the minimum meaningful benefit to all other employees.

If the employer sponsors the DB plan, can this plan be aggregated with the PEO 401(k) plan for 401(a)(4) testing?

This report will print a list of plans on the system

including plan type, vesting schedule, EIN number.

Open report in Crystal.

choose Report/ Select Expert and delete whatever is in there (otherwise you will get nothing)

This report does not print out of Relius. Use print Preview in Crystal only.

This report will only print the most recent valuation year (though you could modify that item)

ah, still at 9.1 but looks like this week the slowpokes finally migrate to 10

This may be a bit of a technical question, but hopefully someone can direct me to a good resourse. Here's the situation:

I am the administrator at our local church. We have a 403b7 plan through Vanguard. The plan docs are the VG template documents and in general the plan is set up to take only employee contributions because there is no 3rd party administrator no matching language, etc.

The church desires to make a large gift into the Sr. Pastors 403b as a one-time employer contribution ($100,000). [Actually there is husband/wife who are Co-Senior Pastors.] Initially I believed that it was not possible to make employer contrubutions without creating new plan docs. After some research, my understanding is that the Employer contribution in the 403b7 would indeed be allowed provided it meets discrimination testing - which I took to mean that despite not normally being subject to descrimination, it would be because of no plan docs. What we do for one participant we have to do for another (although I'm the only other participant and will be out of the plan for 2006). Since the $ amt is large, there are a couple issues.

First, I need to indeed find some language or documentation that the church can indeed make an Employeer contribution to a 403b7 without unique plan docs. (Per VG, it's okay, but they're not answering to the IRS, we are of course). And if it IS okay, then my understabding is that it must be based on percentage of income - and also must be done for each participant. Is that true or false?

Second, I need to confirm that I can shelter the whole $100,000. My understanding is the the aggregate contribution limit is the lesser of $42,000 ($44,000 for 2006) or 100% of compensation. Since the Pastors combined make about $100,000 my understanding is that we will be able to contribute $42,000 per person this year and/or $44,000 per person next year. Caveat is that about $40,000 of their pay comes as tax-free housing allowance and as far as I can tell (via FAQ on irs.gov) that is EX-cluded from total comp calcs, so their includable comp is about $60,000, which means we could do $60,000 in 2005 and $40,000 in 2006 to get to $100,000 (technically those would be divided up between the pastors - I'm just talking in aggregate numbers.) This is my understanding so far.

Third, since I am technically IN the plan in 2005, do I cause them to fail discrimination testing this year. Or because they are the Founding Sr. Pastors are there exclusions. And does discrimination just cover plan participants, or all hired employees? Etc.

I know it's a lot to ask, so thanks for any direction. (Fwiw, I have tried to work with several accountants, and it's a tough subject to find expertise)

GG

PS - for 2005 there may not be a discrimination issue since we can give them a one time bonus and have them defer it as an employee deferral. The limit on that would be $14,000 each, but they would also get a $3,000 years of service increase, which would be $17,000; times 2 people would be $34,000. Assuming 2006 limit of included income is indeed $60,000 ($30,000 each), then we'd be at $94,000 - which is at least *close*.

S-corp owner gets W-2 wages of $100,000. There are health premiums paid of $10,000 that are added on to his income on the W-2.

The extra $10,000 is subject to income tax but not SS Taxes? (Is that backward?)

Is plan comp $100,000 or $110,000?

Thanks (At least its not a K-1 question)

Does anyone know how to print a hard copy of a Thread or even a reply?

Posted this under the 5500 page and got no response, perhaps this is a better place for it.

I had a client ask me this...

Voluntary Long Term Disability, Life Insurance & Accident plans that employees pay through pay roll deduction. Statement from insurance company identifying the contract and broker commissions paid.

Since this is voluntary and employee paid, what if any reporting obligations do they have?

Is there an understandable source out there that can lead me through the questions that I need to ask the client to determine if they should file? I have so little contact with health plans that I haven't a clue.

Thanks for any help that can be provided.

At the risk of beating the proverbial horse ...

When I terminated plans in the past, for example, during the GUST RAP, I always adopted an amendatory agreement (or restated the plan document) as if I was amending the plan at the end of the RAP. However, with the Good Faith EGTRRA Amendment, it simply isn't as clear whether a detailed amendatory agreement (amending the specific plan sections and plan language) is still necessary. I have not been able to find anything issued by the IRS that states that the good faith amendment alone would be sufficient; and, logically, if the termination accelerates the RAP and the good faith amendment is NOT sufficient to meet the amendment requirements at the end of the RAP, it should not be sufficient now. However, I can't find where anyone is doing anything beyond the good faith amendment.

Has anyone filed for a determination letter upon the termination of a plan, post-GUST and pre-EGTRRA RAPs, with just the good faith amendment, the model 401(a)(9) amendment, and the automatic rollover model amendment and received an approval?

If not, any thoughts or comments on whether the full-blown amendatory agreement for EGTRRA is necessary?

Thank you in advance!

Does anyone know if an employer can legally terminate an FSA to start an HSA (mid plan year)? I am aware of the transition relief available. Thanks!

A controlled group of companies maintains four separate defined contribution plans. Effective 1/01/06, three of the plans are merging (without termination) into the fourth plan. Most of the provisions of the 4 plans are consistent or not protected. However, I have a question regarding in-service distribution provisions.

The surviving plan permits hardship distributions only. No other in-service is provided for. One of the three merging plans provides for no in-service at all, so I'm ok here. One of the other two merging plans provides for in service at 59 1/2 of employer profit sharing, and the other provides for in-service at NRA (65 for all plans) and for participants in the plan for 5 years and balances allocated for at least 2 years. I call it the 5-2 rule. The employer would like the surviving plan to provide for hardship only, as it now does.

Question: Must the in-service distribution provisions be carried over into the surviving plan to avoid a violation of 411(d)(6), or can they be eliminated much like optional forms of benefits (ie annuity and installments) wilh notice to plan participants?

Thanks.

An employer has an existing cafeteria plan for the payment of health insurance premiums. Beginning in 2006, he is adding an HSA component. We know that the premiums can't be paid with HSA dollars, but as long as the employer keeps a separate accounting, is there any problem with having the 2 components under the same cafeteria plan?

I have a plan with a number of employees from India. Many of these employees have named a relative in India as their primary beneficiary. Recently, one of the employees died. His Beneficiary Designation Form names his mother, who lives in India, as his primary beneficiary.

The company asked how to pay the mother. I told them she needed to get a temporary tax ID so Uncle Sweets can get his tax money first. The company thinks this process is arduous and have not asked the mother to get the temp tax ID.

Is there something bigger, better, faster than the process I've suggested that you know of?

Thanks for the help.

Hi,

The Company I work for has decided to reimburse our employees this year for their deductible on their health insurance. I checked with our Accountant and Attorney and neither one was able to help us obtain a section 105 form. We were told we needed this in order to make any reimbursements. Also, do we need to do anything with HIPPA? We really wanted to self administer since we only have 12 employees on he plan.

A plan is designed as a safe harbor basic match plan, whereby the employer is to deposit the safe harbor match on a pay period basis. However, the employer has failed to deposit the safe harbor match on a pay period basis in 2005. What are the consequences of not depositing the safe harbor contributions by the end of the quarter following the quarter in which the 401(k) was depsoited?

1. Does the employer have to allocate the safe harbor match based on the full year compensation?

2. Does the employer have to deposit lost earnings and pay an excise tax?

3. Does the employer lose the safe harbor protection and have to perform ADP / ACP testing on the plan?

The same employer sent out the 2006 safe harbor notice to its employees and the notice states the safe harbor would be deposited into the plan on a pay period basis. Can the employer amend the plan to remove the pay period provision and issue a revised safe harbor notice to the employees - or are they stuck with the safe harbor match done on a pay period basis?

We are a city with a 457 plan covering 1000 employees. We have assets of about $25 million. We're not satisfied with our current vendor. Any recommendations out there? Who specializes in our market and what makes them good? All thoughts appreciated.

Hi -

I'm 24 and I want to start putting money into an IRA Roth, but not sure which broker to go with. From the looks of the boards here, people seem to think very highly of Vanguard. May I ask why?

I plan on doing a lot of research on which broker to choose, but it would be a great jump start if I could hear why people tend to go to certain brokers. I was thinking of Fidelity or ING (If ING even offers a Roth) simply because I had heard of them previously. I do know that I want low fees, some help and guidance (but not a complete brokerage firm, like Merrill Lynch), a diversity of funds, and a very good website that helps me understand clearly what is going on and where I stand in regards to my future.

As for the fund to choose, I'm hearing that I should not go with a Tax-Exempt fund or an International fund, but stick to more stable (more conservative) funds. Since I am younger, I should also stay with the fund chosen instead of moving around from fund to fund. Anything else?

Also, do you suggest putting in more than the minimum each year - or just keeping it at $3000 (or whatever the minimum is)? If I make 45k a year, am single (but soon to be married in a year or two), and have $8,000 saved up for whatever, (but still have college loans, rent, bills, etc. each month), what do you recommend?

Any other great words of wisdom? Thank you so very much! Much appreciated.

Jessica

I'm a civilian attempting to puzzle out answers about my own retirement plan that my accountant and current benefit providers can't answer. I haven't been able to find what I'm looking for in past posts here. I am a 100% owner of an LLC and have a SEP-IRA. I'd like to convert to a Solo 401(k) to increase my maximum contribution. I am unmarried, have no employees, and don't intend to have any. I also own a 51% interest in an unrelated LLC, where the 49% partner is not related to me. He has his own LLC where he is a 100% owner and his own retirement plan. This second LLC has substantially lower earnings than my own LLC (or my partner's own LLC). I do materially participate in it now, although I may not in the future.

If it weren't for this second LLC, it seems like a solo 401(k) would make perfect sense, as I could increase my annual contributions substantially and begin making makeup contributions when I turn 50 next year. But in reading the language of the plan document and the relevant IRC sections they reference, I am concerned that if this second LLC were to hire an employee in the future that worked more than 1000 hours per year, that person might have to be covered by my plan because of "affiliated service group" and/or "controlled group" rules.

Can one of the experts here let me know if that is a legitimate concern?

Is it premissible to exclude leased employees from the tests under Section 105? They are not specifically mentioned in the regs, but I was wondering whether there was anything out there that includes or excludes them. Thanks.