Plan is a traditional 401(k) plan, that wants to be amended to become a 401(k) Safe Harbor Plan.

Can I just do an amendment to the plan, or do I have to restate the entire plan document to add a

Safe Harbor feature? I know I must provide the notice also.

Thanks

At the beginning of the plan year, the employer gives each of his employees $450 per year to "shop" for benefits. Ten months into the plan year, the employer would like to stop employer contributions. Is this allowed? Aren't there some discrimination rules broken? If so, where can I find the rule?

Sponsor wants to establish age based ps plan to a closed group (to make up for freeze of a db plan). By itself, it would meet the designed based safe harbor.

1. Does this avoid the gateway even though not all employees are eligible? I think that the closed group need only satisfy 410(b) and then it would be exempt from the 3/1 or 5% rules.

2. Any opinions on whether or not "employees formerly eligible for the employer's pension plan" might meet the reasonable classification requirement that is a prerequisite to use of the average benefits test for coverage? Any experiences with the IRS on that point?

Plan fails ADP test.

a discretionary match was provided weekly, but was stopped mid year.

so, any guesses on the calculation of related match.

Is it first deferrals in and therefore first deferrals out, so there is related match, or is it averaged over the whole year (ugh) or last deferrals in are refunded and therefore no related match.

Can an employee eligible to receive a SEP contribution elect not to receive it? All eligiblity requirements have been met. Not a SAR-SEP. Thanks.

I am administering the estate of my late uncle, who had established an IRA in 1986 and contributed $2,000 to it each year through 1993, when he retired. But he contined to contribute after retiring. His post-retirement contributions were funded by dividend income and Social Security.

Despite minimum distributions, the IRA had accumulated to about $27,000. My mother is the beneficiary. Although she could certainly use the money, we don't want to commence withdrawals until we are satisfied that the amounts withdrawn are properly taxable.

What will happen to this IRA when I present the custodian with this information about improper contributions?

Is a rollover from a Roth IRA into a Roth 401(k) allowed? And if so, when does the 5 year window begin? Is it the starting date for the Roth IRA or the starting date of the Roth 401(k)?

I realize that an employer is required to recieve authorization from an employee before benefit deductions are taken. However, does anyone know how the authorization is to be obtained? Can the authorization be done with an electronic signature? If a wet signature is requied, how do other employers deal with this issue?

Thanks

The plan was merged from a money purchase plan into a profit sharing plan in 2002; however, it has just been discovered that the name on the bank trust account was never changed to the profit sharing plan name. Could a case be made that we never merged plans? What is the worst case scenario in a situation like this?

If government plans aren't subject to ERISA, I suppose the state laws would determine to what extent there is protection from creditors. So a military person would look to his home state for the answer?

Folks:

We had a very interesting discussion regarding this topic recently.

The DOL issued Advisory Opionion 2005-23A, which deals specifically with our concerns.

Go To:

http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/regs/aos/ao2005-23a.html.

Don Levit

Taxable (conplex) Trust with employees. Can it adopt a qualified retirement plan? I can't get my arms around this question on a Friday for some reason and would appreciate help!

Very general Q: Are deductions for 401(k) contributions (say match or NECs) technically under 162?

When you report the value of life insurance for the 5000, do you use the cash surrender value or the face value?

Notice 2005-95 extends the time by which certain amendments need to be

signed depending on whether the amendment is a discretionary one or one due

to correct a disqualifying provision. The Automatic Rollover/ Mandatory

Cash-Out amendment is one needed to correct a disqualifying provision and

the time to sign the amendment has been extended for certain plans.

Question - if the plan had a $5000 cash-out threshold and has decided to

lower that threshold to $1000 via the Automatic Rollover amendment, does the fact

that the cash-out level has been reduced to $1000 constitute a

"discretionary" amendment on behalf of the employer and should have been

signed under the time frame disregarding the extension afforded by 2005-95?

Relevant Background Information

----------------------

An employer maintains a defined benefit plan and a defined contribution plan both having plan years ending Febuary 28th. The defined contribution plan is merged into the defined benefit plan as of Febuary 28, 2005. As of Febuary 28, 2005, all participants in the defined contribution plan are 100% vested with the exception of one participant that is partially vested. The partially vested participant terminated in a prior year but has yet to be fully paid out and has not incurred 5 consecutive breaks in service. The defined contribution plan allows for the reallocation of forfeitures upon the earlier of (a) the distribution of the entire vested portion of the participant's account or (b) the last day of the plan year in which the participant incurs 5

consecutive breaks in service.

Specific Questions

---------------------

Once the plans merged on February 28, 2005, what should have happened to the unvested portion of the partially vested participant's account?

Must the unvested portion be reallocated as of February 28, 2005 based upon the profit sharing plan's allocation formula although the participant has not been fully paid out or incurred 5 consecutive breaks in service?

Conversely, can the unvested portion be used to reduce future contribution in the defined benefit plan? As such, under this scenario, it is not reallocated to participant's accounts.

Long story short...got a big 2004 bonus and did not qual for any Roth contributions. I had already put in 3K for me and 1.8K for the wife. I recharacterized that $ into traditional IRAs (done in Feb 2005). Thinking that all that was in the past as a "2004 thing"...I then put another 8K into our Roths this year (2005). I got my 1099-Rs today from Morgan Stanley and then it dawned on me....does that money (the 4.8K) count against me, limiting what I could contribute in 2005 to my Roths? Did I contribute 4.8K too much again this year???? Help! Thanks!

Tax-exempt employer (not a government entity) wants to provide a retirement benefit to executive director who is retiring this year. In general, the employer wants to credit, say, $100K to a book-keeping account for director (account remains an asset of the employer, subject to employer's creditors), and then pay this amount to the director in annual installments over the next 10 years. In essence, this arrangement is nothing more than an unsecured promise by the employer to pay benefits to the employee in the future. Is this type of arrangement subject to Code section 457? Thanks.

Can anyone remember when the required date to amend for ERISA was? Before anyone sends hair-trigger reply, the act was signed into law 9/02/74 but it took a while to write the regulations and there was time for sponsors to amend plans to comply with ERISA. Am thinking is was sometime in 1976 to 78 time frame.

I am looking for that date where you had to either have it done or you stayed pre-erisa forever.

Thanks in advance!

The husband of a co-worker had his company insurance cancelled because he was deemed to be "a risk". Not only was he not allowed to enroll during 2006 open enrollment for medical, but he was also denied access to their company's dental and vision coverage.

At the same time he was allowed to remain in the company 401k, AD&D, STD & LTD programs.

My question - is it legal to isolate certain employees and deny them continued coverage?