Am looking for contact information of a Health Reimbursement Arrangment or Section 105 Medical Reimbursement Plan administrator. About 90% of the employer's workforce is Hispanic, so having written materials in Spanish and bi-lingual representatives are important. Employer and broker are located in Southern California. Please provide business name, contact name, phone number, and e-mail if available. Thanks

A company I represent has several pension checks that were sent to participants but remain uncashed. I'm not sure how to deal with these funds. After a certain period of time can they revert to the trust?

We have a client who increased the life insurance benefit for its employees. An employee was on a leave of absence when this happened and pursuant to the plan administrator's interpretation was not entitled to the enhanced benefit because he was not actively employed. When (if) the employee resumes employment, the enhanced benefit will apply. The employee elected the cash-out option while on leave and is now claiming entitlement to the enhanced benefit. Our position is that he is not eligible for the enhanced benefit because he was not actively employed when he elected to receive his cash out of the life insurance proceeds. Unfortunately, payroll imputed income to him as though he was entitled to the enhanced benefit. Are there any cases out there and/or guidance that would bolster the argument that notwithstanding the administrative oversight - which has since been corrected - our interpretation is nonetheless not arbitrary and capricious?

Any insight will be greatly appreciated!

401(k) Plan fails 415 and does not correct in a timely manner. Submits SVP (as it was called back in the day) and gets Compliance Statement. Compliance Statement requires return of excess deferrals and forfeiture of match associated with those deferrals. Employer signs Compliance Statement and everyone is happy.

Recordkeeper ignores instructions to forfeit and returns the excess deferrals and matching contributions to the affected participants. Does not tell anyone and, when participants call to question amount, tell them that it is earnings. When Recordkeeper realizes that the forfeiture account is short, it goes into the accounts of the affected participants and deducts the amounts that should have been forfeited. Does this without any notice or consent.

When discovered on audit, recordkeeper is fired.

Because the terms of the Compliance Statement were not met, does the Employer need to do a VCP for failure to comply with the Compliance Statement?

Can a sole proprietor with a Keogh Plan make a contribution even though there is a loss in the business? Can he make a contribution for his employees?

Hello,

I am going through the CEBS coursework, and we have been looking at functional plan analyses. It seems to be a great way to thoroughly analyze the various plans and how they interact, but I was hoping someone might have a template that could be used and reused in order to facilitate this. Please let me know if you have something that might work!

Thanks!

Brent Adams

Clearwater, FL

Employer's fiscal year runs from May 1, 2004 through April 30, 2005. They sponsor a 401(k) plan on a calendar year basis. Plan requires a top heavy contribution. By when must the top heavy contribution be made in order to be deductible for the 2004 plan year? Thanks

We offer employees the option of declining group health insurance in exchange for a cash payment to them of a few hundred dollars, generally less than $1000, if they can certify that they are covered elsewhere, e.g. through a spouse's plan.

We require that employees make a conscious (re-)election of this "cash in lieu of" benefit each year during open enrollment. No annual election, no cash payment.

Do you do similarly, i.e. require a conscious annual reelection? Is this in fact a legal requirement? Thank you.

I've received a question, in essence:

Do carrier contracts over-ride employee handbooks related to policies surrounding leave of absence?

Must a group move an employee on a leave of absence from the group contract to to COBRA or Cal-COBRA at the end of a leave?

Where can I find any supporting documentation of what carriers are required to do in terms of employee leaves of absence?

Company X maintains a medical plan permitting dependent children to remain covered until age 19 or if the child is a full-time student in college until age 23. Company X buys the stock of Company L, a subsidiary of Company B. Company L's employees participate in Company B's medical plans which provides the children remain dependents until age 25. Upon the closing date, dependent children who are 34 or 25 lose their medical coverage under Company B's plan. Should Company B offer these dependents COBRA coverage or should Company X? The stock purchase agreement is silent on who is responsible for COBRA coverage.

I didn't see anywhere on the tax return where it was required to inform the IRS of contributions to a Roth IRA. Is that correct?

I'm confronted with this situation:

Sole proprietor established self-employed 401(k) in 2004, incorporated in 2005 (S-corporation). The 401(k) was established with Fidelity (prototype plan) with the TIN of the sole proprietorship as plan sponsor.

Questions:

* Keep the old 401(k) and contribute to it from the S-corp income?

* Let the old 401(k) sit there w/o new contributions and create a new 401(k)?

* Create a new 401(k) and roll over the old account to the new one?

What formalities have to be done, and what restrictions apply in each case?

I have been contributing to both my mom and dad's ROTH accounts since 2001. They in turn have me as the primary beneficiery. I don't know if that crosses a fine line in ethics etc. But it is sure nice to be moving around in stocks with no tax consequences. We have just a verbal agreement to send me a withdrawl when/if I want after 2006. ( The 5 year waiting period) I do have a brother and sister so my dad was concerned with potential conflicts with probate/withdrawls and so on.

I know it is probably late to ask if anyone knows if this is potentially a big headache. I have looked at this in different situations, and the only problem I see is mom and dad decide to "forget" about me. lol

Basically I saw this message board and was wondering if anyone else is doing this or was thinking of it.

Google led me here, where folks seem to be knowledgeable, so let me throw this out:

I write for TV and have just become a Subchapter S Corp. One of the major reasons for this is so I can put some tax-deferred retirement income aside. Now I need to decide between a SEP-IRA and a 401k. Now, I know the limit is $42,000, whichever way I go, but I'm confused over which way may might be most advantageous.

The SEP-IRA path is 25% of my salary, right? So I would need to pay myself $168,000. The 401k way is 25%of salary plus $14,000 of pass-through income. I will make enough to do it either way, I just don't know if there are tax savings from doing it one way or another.

A related question, I guess, is what is the optimal salary to draw? or what is the best balance between salary and pass-through income? I will gross about $425,000 with expenses (primarily agent commission and legal) about $70,000. I live in California, which I think imposes a 1.5% tax on S corp net income.

Grateful fo any advice, or to be directed to a clear discussion of above issues!

Greg

Just curious on how everyone handles this? Do you have each rate group name the participant in it specifically so that the owners child can be excluded and/or given a zero benefit?

Ex> Joe Schmo runs his own roofing firm. He has a new comparability plan that is working nicely and is maximizing his contributions. However, the heir to his roofing empire has just graduated from design school and needs to earn money to eat. Joe Schmo hires Joe Jr. to work for his company. Joes sole responsibility is to ensure that the company t-shirts are the best in all the land and that each employee wears it on a daily basis. Joe Jrs. Official title is Company Fashion Consultant. If you had them categorized as HCE and Non-HCE the plan would fail 401a4 miserably. So we must create a new category so that Joe Jr. can receive a zero contribution.

How do you categorize them now.

ie: Rate Group 1: Joe Schmo

Rate Group 2: Joe Jr.

Rate Group 3: All Others

or Rate Group 1: President

Rate Group 2: Company Fashion Consultant

Rate Group 3: All Others

Teachers are on contract for the school year with the summer off, but health care benefits are continued during summer months. They "make up" premium contribution at the start of the next school year. If they do not return in September, how do other schools handle getting payment for their contributions?

A plan has an effective date of 3/1/2004 and runs off calendar.

The owner makes one contribution on 12/31/2004 for $16,000 and no additional contributions before the plan year ends on 2/28/2005.

Am I correct in assuming that for non-discrimination purposes for the plan year ending 2/28/2005 the owner has deferrals of $13,000 and catchup contributions of $3,000?

Since we only get the census at the end of the plan year, and post a single transaction, our system wants to make the deferrals $14,000 with a $2,000 catchup (based on 2005 limits).

Thanks!

a calendar year psp(appx 18 particpants) wants to change the plan year to 4-1-04 - 3-31-05 in order to avoid making contributions to a couple of terminated employees. i advised that this can not be done retroactively. however, if they wanted to set it up for 4-1-05 thru 3-31-06, and the amendments were signed prior to april 1, 05. what liability would the plan have for the short plan year(1-1-05 thru 3-31-05) outside filing 5500 by 10/31/05?

Upon commencement of employment, employees elected not to participate in the employer's profit sharing plan. The plan has since been amended to include a 401(k) feature. Can these employees now elect to participate in the plan? The employees are only going to participate in the 401(k) feature of the plan and will be excluded from participating in the profit sharing feature.

I'm having a tough time figuring out the extent to which Reg. Section 1.401(k)-1(a)(iv) impacts these elections. Any comments?

Can someone please clarify for me the status of the IRS' new relative value disclosure regulations as they apply to money purchase pension plans (MPPP)?

Specifically, if a MPPP's lump sum is not less valuable than the annuities under the plan, are the regulations currently effective or delayed to 2/1/2006?

Thanks.