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.

Just for fun, perhaps some of you would like to help skew the average results (4 out of 10 answers correct) of this quiz.

Possibly this has been addressed before, but I could not locate it.

Assume NRA is age 65, and NRD is first of the next month (or something similar), and the plan requires one year of service in order to participate. Example, CY plan year, EE is hired on 12/31/2004 at age 66. He/she then can become a participant at 1/1/2006. What is the NRA? NRD?

Alternative 1: NRA = 12/31/04 and NRD = 01/01/2005, retroactively established when the EE becomes a participant.

Alternative 2: Both = 01/01/2006, on the assumption that you cannot have NRA or NRD if you are not in the Plan.

Alternative 3: Other?

Perhaps you think, who cares? But I see relevance under IRC 411(b)(1)(H)(iii).

The Plan failed it's 2001 (no mistake 2001) ADP + ACP tests. Unadjusted ADP corrections of $8,724 and ACP corrections of $633 are required. What should the Plan Sponsor do to fix this?

My future husband and I will be filing jointly for year 2006 and I would like to open up a Roth IRA for each of us. He makes 75K a year and I make 36K a year on long term disability. Now that I've gotten the question of whether my long term disability is considered 'earned income' by the IRS (it is) I've been told that I can't earn more than $10,000 and have my own Roth IRA. My State Farm agent told me this. Can this really be correct? How's a lady supposed to have her own individual account and still be married without a 'spousal' Roth that is basically and appendage of her husbands Roth? Can someone give me a claification on this???

Ok - we're having a debate over the relationship of service providers to the plan. Are all service providers (i.e. recordkeepers, investment managers, trustees, etc.) considered to be parties-in-interest for purposes of Schedule C, line 2d?

Under ERISA Section 3(14), party-in-interest is defined in part as:

1. Any fiduciary (included but not limited to, any administrator, officer, trustee, or custodian), counsel or employee of the plan.

2. A person providing services to the plan.

In #2, does a "person" mean an actual person, or does it also include entities?

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

Laura

The Health Savings Account Answer Book is now available from Aspen Publishers.

For more information or to order on-line click on the following:

Aspen On-Line

To order by telephone, call 1-800-638-8437.

The Health Savings Account Answer Book is now available from Aspen Publishers.

For more information or to order on-line click on the following: Aspen On-Line

To order by telephone, call 1-800-638-8437.