Do I understand this correctly that small employers who self-administer an HRA are not subject to HIPAA if they have 49 or fewer participants?

And if they have fewer than 20 they are not subject to COBRA?

How would COBRA apply anyway when the employer doesn't have group health insurance but only offers funds the employee can tap to pay for actual out of pocket medical expenses? Does it just mean we have to allow them to deplete their account balance even if they are no longer employed (in order to be COBRA compliant) ?

can a plan be a limited or general partner?

We have a client that wants to offer an HSA and some of the employees are participating in an FSA. Can we ammend the FSA as a Limited Coverage FSA (dental and vision only) for those that want to make the switch in the middle of a plan year?

Recently discovered that a client, who utilized a brokerage house Prototype Plan Document, never had the Plan Document amended for GUST or EGTRRA. Through mergers and change in Brokers, the Amendments were not processed, yet the Plan operated in compliance throughout the years. Would you recommend VCP assistance for this Non-Amender and the resulting Plan Document Failure? What other alternatives can you suggest?

Recently discovered that a client, who utilized a brokerage house Prototype Plan Document, never had the Plan Document amended for GUST or EGTRRA. Through mergers and change in Brokers, the Amendments were not processed, yet the Plan operated in compliance throughout the years. Would you recommend VCP assistance for this Non-Amender and the resulting Plan Document Failure? What other alternatives can you suggest?

I have a 401(k) plan being audited and one of the IRS requests is a copy of the statement under 6057(e).

Would a standard quarterly participant account statement which is provided to the ex-employee suffice? It contains their name and account balance and vested account balance and they continue to get the statement quarterly unitl such time as they take a distribution from the plan.

I'm sure someone has a ready answer for this. I purchased a laptop about 3 years ago when in hindsight, I was better suited for a desk top (and could have saved about 50% on the cost). In fact I am essentially using it as a desktop at this point, and that is where my question comes up. Since I rarely have to move it around, it is plugged in (ac/dc power) almost always. Rarely do I need it to run on battery. Therefore, it is always fully charged. Is this a problem now or will it be one in the future? I've had 2 different friends in high IT places who have provided opposite answers. FWIW, it is a Dell Inspiron 8200.

A client is a partner of a partnership and also has unrelated self employment income reportable on his Schedule C. Can he receive contributions from a SEP established by the partnership and a SEP established by him for his self employment income?? Thanks.

I completed the 2004 annual val for a small plan that uses the prior year testing method. We told the administrator that the sole HCE will need to keep his deferral percentage at 4.71% or less in order to pass the test for 2005. Apparently, he has already contributed that much. We have told them to stop, but is there any way that he can take a correction now, in the 2005 year, or would he have to wait? I feel that it's too late, and I can't find anything in the Erisa Outline book that says he could take a refund now.

Any thoughts? Thanks!

Is anyone aware of any DOL guidance, pronouncements etc. regarding the "reasonableness" of the allocation of administrative expenses among Funds and related entities e.g. union, employer association.

Has anyone seen any calculators out there for Roth 401(k) contributions? I know that there are some out there for Roth IRAs but wanted to use higher contribution limits available in the 401(k) Plan. Thanks

Over 100 participant company ceases operations( sold out in an asset sale) and then very quickly shut down. Prior two years 5500s and audits not complete. If the plan administrator( the company) ceases to exist is there any liability for failure to file?...Personal liability for former officers/trustees?

Does anyone know of an exception (perhaps a one time event) to the discrimination rules permitting a company to provide health insurance to a long-time employee after retirement without having to provide it for all retirees?

Participant is a doctor and is in a 403(b) plan with the hospital.

He also started up his own business, can you maintain a 401(k) and participate is both? If so, what are his limits? Can he maximize himself in both?

We have an employee who is going to have gender reassignment surgery (going from female to male).

Are there any issues as far as insurance coverage we should be concerned with.

I am aware this elective procedure is not covered under our group health insurance.

I'm also assuming this employee could use their Medical Reimbursement account to cover some of the expense of the surgery.

A plan participant maintains employee plus spouse medical coverage. The spouse recently was incarcerated and is now in the "big house", maintaining access to health coverage while visiting. The employee wishes to reduce medical coverage from employee plus spouse to employee only. If gaining access to government sponsored health coverage is not considered a qualifying event, wouldn't the coverage that is gained when entering the pen also be an ineligible event??

Believe me..I've tried to understand all of this. I'm going to explain what we'd like to do and how I understand it and please tell me if it's doable. I'm still confused as to whether or not it is permissible to offer different accounts to different employees or if they must all be the same.

Small employer will have a dozen or so employees working overseas and plans to give each one an HRA with $5,000 in it to be used for privately obtained medical and dental insurance premiums and out of pocket expenses. Let's call this HRA #1.

Same employer has several current employees that he offers an HRA to for expenses only, $1,000 per year and they can accumulate and rollover up to $2,500. HRA #2.

Same employer will be hiring several new domestic employees and would like to reimburse them for up to $4,500 per year for privately obtained medical/dental insurance premiums only (no carryover provision)....must provide insurance receipts, etc....As I understand it he does not need to have a plan document for this nor does he have to offer it to every employee either the old ones or the newly hired ones.

Same employer would also like to offer HRA #2 (to cover the out of pocket expense above and beyond the premiums) to the select new employees he's providing the premium reimbursement funds for.

Is all this legal and proper? Is there something I'm not understanding correctly?

I know this has likely been addressed before but it's very confusing.

Lisa

Two partnerships are considered one employer by the ownership. The partnerships each have a 401(k) plan and their are highly compensated employees in each of the plans. Do the plans have to be aggregated for testing purposes; ie coverage, top heavy and adp/acp?

Prior to termination from employment, I submitted outstanding reimbursable health expenses to my employer for reimbursement. However, they only reimbursed me for a pro-rata portion of the elected annual dollar amount as of date of termination. To simplify, my total elected amount, some of which is covered by employer contributions, was $1000; but they only permitted reimbursement of approximately $500 (the amount deposited to "my account" as of date of termination).

Is this correct? If not, do you have a reference or regulation?

I have a Participant who died. At the time of his death, he was married to his second wife. After his death, first wife has presented us with a QDRO. This is a defined benefit plan. We are currently paying the second wife the QPSA. What are our options? Our QDRO procedures are silent on this issue. Thanks.