If a 78-year-old non-5% owner is still employed & participating in a SIMPLE-IRA plan, can they elect to defer their RMD until after they terminate service with the employer?

The accountant who is performing an independent audit (for 5500 purposes) on a large plan is informing me that we, as third party administrator, must have a SAS 70 report. Does anyone know where I can find more information regarding the Service Auditor's Report?

There has sometimes been speculation that no plan meets all the requirements of ERISA 404© and a fiduciary may be better protected from liability by performing due diligence and helping improve participants understanding of investments.

Does anyone think that the same is true of the automatic rollover rules? In other words, is it likely that there will be some question of whether a plan has complied with the safe harbor based on lack of definition in the rules (or will the new requirement for an agreement eliminate that risk)? Would it be just as good to comply with the one-year non-safe harbor rule instead.

We offer a retiree plan (self-funded) to our employees who meet certain criteria and retire. If the retiree is eligible for Medicare, we would like to make Medicare the primary payor, and let the retiree plan pay as a med-supp plan.

Our active employee group plan does have over 100 lives.

I am familiar with the COB rules as they relate to disabled employees under age 65 and Medicare, but is it permissible to have Medicare as primary if it is a retiree plan and the retiree is disabled? We would of course amend the plan document to clearly state that the retiree plan is secondary to Medicare, if available.

Thanks for your input.

I have a brand new VEBA that is setup for a company's retired employees. No current employees are eligible. Since all participants are retired, should I enter the number of participants under line 7a or 7b?

IBM has announced a partial settlement in its class action brought by workers who sued for age discrimination. IBM has agreed to pay 320M to workers who were affected by the adoption of a pension equity benefit formua in 1995. If the court decision that IBM's cash balance pension formula discriminated against participants on account of age is upheld on appeal, IBM would pay up to an additional 1.4B. The agreements are subject to ct approval.

This individual designated his trust (which was revocable during his life but became irrevocable on his death) as the beneficiary of his IRA. Is the transfer taxable? We don't do much IRA work, so this is a new one on me. Any thoughts much appreciated.

Is there a website that keeps track of Taft-Hartley fund mergers?

I'm not too familiar with 401(k) plans so I apologize in advance for my ignorance. Say an employer makes matching contributions in excess of the plan's limits for matching contributions (i.e., employer matches more than the "50% on the first 6% of compensation" as specified in the plan document). The plan's service provider has taken the excess match and allocated it to a forfeiture account. Are there any problems with this type of transaction? What potential issues, if any, does this create for the plan? Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

I see the number of posts at the time I write this is 99,265.

Any guesses what day the magic 100,000 will be reached?

I am sure that is some actuary out there who knows,

e.g. "what day do you want it to be" and obviously such individually would probably post enough on that day just to make it happen.

therefore, maybe this useless and nonsensical contest shouldn't be open to them.

I worked for a nonprofit company for 7 years and have money in a 403b from that company. There is never any new money put in it. My account has not increase d in 3 years. Actually it has lost money on a consistant basis. I want to close out the account and move it to a non taxable account. Can I convert to my current 401k playn or a Roth IRA?

It appears from the history of Code section 4980 that the excise tax on reversions does not apply to any plan that terminated prior to January 1, 1986, even if the reversion occurred after that date. Is my understanding correct? Thanks

public charity 501©(3) with a 403(b):

Are employee deferrals subject to the ERISA 29 CFR § 2510.3-102 time limit on deposits (sooner of reasonable segregation or 15th of following month)?

Does it make a difference if the plan has or does not have employer contributions (assuming the former is ERISA exempt and the latter is ERISA subject)?

Michael Smith

I will not attempt to influence the learned people viewing this message with my opinion (until after when I will post my answer and rationale).

However, the following situation is interesting (I think):

Valuation 12/31/2004

Actuary assured the client that with the income they were generating and age/compensation data that a 100,000 contribution could be generated easily.

Client promptly contributed on 4/1/2004 100,000. They also invested the contribution in a speculative stock that has paid dividends. The stock is already worth 200,000.

What should the actuary use as assets for the valuation at 12/31/2004?? (Assuming that they do not appreciate any more by then <GGG>!)

a) 200,000 minus prepaids of 100,000

b) Zero (first year of the plan)

c) Something else???

Thanks for any input in advance.

We have a plan with a 401(k) feature with a one-year eligibility and a P/S/P feature with a 2-year eligibility. Does such a plan need a gateway?

Thank you

Does anyone know if regulations limit what can be refunded for exceeding the 415 Limit? Or is it the plan document that can limit what is refunded?

For instance, if only ED contributions can be refunded to remedy a 415 Limit excess then any excess over that amount needs to be offset with future contributions.

Dr. X is a dental client who has three separate dental practices. Each practice is a separate corporation with Dr. X being the sole shareholder of all three.

If Dr. X would establish Safe Harbor 401k plans for his practices, would he establish three individual plans?

Dr. X has an associate dentist who works at two of the practices. The associate's combined compensation between the two practices is in excess of $205,000 annually. To calculate the associate's contribution would I look at his compensation from each practice individually, or is all his compensation lumped together?

Dr. X's wife also has her own dental practice where she is the sole shareholder. What if she wanted a Safe Harbor 401k plan for her practice?

Help!

I should clarify - by "direct rollover rules" I meant the new DOL regs regarding mandatory rollovers of amounts over 1,000 and less than 5,000.

I'm not clear on this. It seems pretty clear that the 402(f) Notice, and either an updated SPD or SMM must be done. But is an actual "good faith" amendment required to be adopted (for VS plans) by then?

By the way, in IRS Announcement 2004-33, the IRS said that a VS practitioner would be allowed to amend the plan on behalf of adopting employers, for changes in the Code, etc. - great provision! However, I don't see, offhand, that this was retained in the draft Revenue Procedure under 2004-71. Anyone know what happened, or if the IRS is planning on adding it back in?

Are you allowed to enter negative liabilites on the Schedule H - lines 1)g through 1)j? I wasn't sure if that would result in a DOL notice or not.

Suppose you have a 401(k) plan that does not match the catch-up contributions. The ADP test fails and a person's excess contribution is recharacterized as a catch-up, therefore no refund. Is that person entitled to a match on this recharacterized amount?