I have a collectively bargained plan with about 150 participants. Is an accountant's report still needed to be filed with Form 5500? I would assume yes, but I have an accountant who is saying no.

I have a calendar year PS/401k with a 3% non-elective SH. Eligibility to receive contribution is employed at end of year or work 501 hours if terminated.

Currently the employer contribution is integrated at 100% of the TWB. Can we change to a cross-tested formula for the 2005 plan year? Thanks.

I have a davis bacon plan that includes 401(k) and match for non-prevailing wage earners. The issue that I have this year is they let an owners child work during the summer earning prevailing wage! We have found that you can characterize the pw contribution as QNEC but are still failing ADP and Modified Facts & Circumstance safe/unsafe harbor. Any suggestions?

I have a 412i plan that was installed at the end of 2004. The plan document defines the accrued benefit as the value of the contracts. Insurance policy and annuity cash values are -0- at 12/31/04. Can I take this literally and say that nobody benefits for 04? Seems like a cheap way out of coverage and top heavy.

Yankees = 205 million

Tampa Bay = 38 million

so far this year, Tampa Bay leads the series 10 - 4

3.8 million / win vs 51.25 million / win

gotta love those numbers!

plus Tampa Bay has prevented the Yanks from being in first.

gotta love that as well.

Are buy/sell insurance agreements typically included as part of the plan document language, or are they separate arrangements made outside of the plan & trust, drafted by competent attorneys, I presume? I believe that plan documents only need to allow for insurance but do not need to address buy/sell agreements, but I was hoping someone could confirm this. Thanks for any comments.

Can a DB plan allow a distribution partially as a lump sum and partially as an annuity? For example, say that the normal form is 100% J & S. Can the owner, assuming he hits the dollar limit, choose to receive his benefit 50% as a lump sum and 50% as an annuity? If the answer is yes, can you fund the benefit based on this scenario (provided, of course, that he puts his intent in writing)?

An individual is receiving payments from a DB plan as a retiree. They are subsequently rehired. We have been counting them as a retired individual in pay status on line 7b. Do we now start counting them as an active participant on line 7a (instead of counting them on line 7b)? Does it matter whether their benefit payments stop upon rehire or whether they accrue additional benefits after rehire? Thanks.

We have a trust set up years ago for the care of a severely disabled patient. The trust is in good order and its legalities are not in question.

The trust employs people to care for the patient - round the clock nurses, an administrator of the trust (several million dollars), workers on a farm owned by the trust, and the mother is an employee who is the main drive behind the good care for her son.

QUESTION: May this trust establish a profit sharing plan for the benefit of these employees? There would, of course, be a separate retirement trust to hold plan assets.

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

Employer wants to start a 401k plan and wants to have life insurance as an option. He has money in an IRA that he would like to rollover into the plan, and use either some, most, or all of the rollover to purchase a life insurance policy. Is it allowable to purchase insurance with rollover money, and is it discriminatory if only he purchases the insurance (ie, no one else wants insurance)?

Thanks

Have situation where father is custodial parent who pays all child care expenses. Under court order, child spent 7 weeks with mother this summer.

Can father change his election to reduce because he had no child care expenses for 7 weeks???

Employer has asked if it can front-load the 3% safe harbor contribution. Without looking at the plan doc a number of issues come to mind. 1. 3% of what number? 2. what if participant terminates early in the year or their comp. for whatever reason is less than last year's comp. ? E/ee will want all $$ earmarked for him/her 3. if total comp. is less than last year's e/er can't get the money back 4. plan doc. issues Anyone looked at this previously or have other issues? Thanks.

Health and welfare multi-employer plan subject to collective bargaining agreement. Trustees want to negotiate increase in employer contribution mid-contract. If employers do not agree to increase, and option to voluntarily withdraw from plan is given, are employers subject to withdrawal liability? If so, is this complete or partial withdrawal?

As a pension Plan administrator, I am in the process of calculating a pension for a recent retiree. Said retiree is divorced with a Divorce Judgement on file. According to this document, the ex-wife shall receive the sum of $800 per month for the lifetime of the retiree. I was contacted by the ex-wifes' attorney recently and he informed me that the two parties in the Divorce judgement now have an oral agreement stipulating that the ex-wife will receive $300 per month as opposed to $800 per month. The lawyer requested information on the retiree's pension amount in order to 'calculate' the amount owed to wife and draw up a QDRO. Which, is very confusing considering they agreed to a set dollar amount, eliminating the need for calcuating a percentage of his pension.

At any rate, his pension will begin soon, should I retain $300 per month in anticipation of the forthcoming QDRO? Or $800 per month as per the Divorce Judgement? Or nothing until receipt of QDRO? Because this is a NON-ERISA Plan. does the 18 month QDRO determination period apply?

A client would like to implement a weight loss incentive program. The client is proposing to reimburse employees (and covered dependents) for the cost Weight Watchers meetings upon reaching certain Weight Watchers milestones. Weight Watchers recognizes the following milestones:

5 lbs

10% weight loss

Every 10 lbs thereafter

Goal Weight

Maintaining weight for 6 weeks

After successfully attaining the above milestones, the client will reimburse the employee for the cost of WW meetings through the milestone.

I do not see a HIPAA issue, but wanted some other input.

Also, I believe such reimbursements would be taxable compensation, other thoughts?

Thanks

Plan allows only one outstanding loan at a time.

Participant replaced an outstanding loan in November, 2004 (following the new regs).

Now participant is asking how much more can she borrow.

How many times can a participant do this?

I thought I remember reading once a plan year.

Can a 5500EZ be filed if the only employees are the owner and her 8 yr old daughter who will be participating in the Plan? I've never run into this situation before. Thanks in advance for anticipated assistance.

Could someone help me with this?

Of the basic plans, Hybrids Defined Contributions Plans, Government & Exempt Plans, IRA's and Qualified Plans... Is there a rule of thumb of knowing which retirement plan allows employees to contribute?

I noticed the following on Sunguard Corbel's Website and though it may interest some of the visitors here

http://www.corbel.com/news/katrina.asp

A business owner consulted me about the best strategy for securing penalty waiver for late filing of his 5500-EZ. He did a mass filing of these forms on January, 2005 for 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002 for his money purchased and profit sharing plans, a total of 10 late forms. He admitted the reasons for not filing is forgetfulness or lack of knowledge. He understand that there is a potential $150,000 (10 x $15,000) penalty if the IRS decided to throw the book on him. He recently received 6 IRS notices and he is at loss on what to do. I am seeking help from all the good and knowledgeable folks on this forum to extend help and their most recent experiences on this subject so he can plan on to resolve this heavy burden.

If these filings were done in 2002 or before, the IRS is extremely helpful in granting 100% waiver. For the years 2003 and 2004 I have heard that some people got 100% waivers and some got reduced penalties. For 2005 I am not sure how the IRS will respond to his request. Is it advisable to hire a CPA or a tax lawyer to write a reasonable cause letter? If you can provide referrals for CPAs and/or lawyers who have a lot of experienced related to this matter will be highly appreciated. If you can write your most recent experiences and outcome on late filing will also be appreciated.