I've been sent on another mission...BEREAVEMENT LEAVE. Our current policy allows 3 days of paid bereavement leave for an in-state funeral, and five paid days for an out-of-state bereavement. Standard relatives apply.

One "proposal" is for 10 days paid for spouse or child, 5 days for parent or 3 days for the rest of the immediate family, regardless of in or out of state status.

...and your thoughts???

Thanks in advance....

An employer allows its employees to defer either a dollar amount or a percentage per payroll. However, for bonuses, the employer wants to allow deferral contributions for participants who choose a percentage but not for those who choosse a flat dollar amount.

The bonus payrolls are in addition to normal payrolls and occur outside the normal payroll period. The definition of compensation is section 3401(a) compensation.

Can the employer justify his actions?

Thanks!

I don't have any real details, other than that we are being told that there is a corporation (A) that is supposedly owned 50/50 by 2 individuals. Yet one person owns 100% of the stock.

Has anyone ever heard of such a thing? It doesn't even seem possible, and there's probably a lot more to it. But before we go back and say "whaaaaaat?" or something similar, thought I'd toss this out. All I could think of was that perhaps they were talking about voting vs. nonvoting stock.

I have a plan with 6 HCEs and 2 NHCs. A QNEC (greater than 3%) is needed to pass the ADP test. In addition, the plan is top heavy. Does the QNEC also satisfy the top heavy minimum contribution?

In order for a rehire to have forfeited benefits restored, is a plan required to contain a "buy back" provision, as outlined in 1.411(a)-7(d)(4)((iv)? I have a plan with an individually designed document which calls for a restoration of forfeited benefits without requiring the rehired participant to pay back any distributions, and is requiring the establishment of a separate account for tracking vesting on these amounts upon rehire.

????

Let me put my question another way:

If a plan document does not contain the repayment language, am I correct in stating that a plan cannot immediately forfeit a participant's non-vested accrued benefit because the plan does not fully satisfy the "cash out" provisions in 1.411(a). From my interpretation of the Regulations, it seems as if the non-vested portion would remain in the participant's account, unavailable for current forfeiture usage (i.e.- reallocation, other restorations, payment of plan expenses, etc.).

How long does an employer need to keep obsolete plan documents after restatement. For example client adopted a prototype HR-10 plan in 1994. Plan was restated for two sucessive mergers of the sponsor. The assets were then transferred to a prototype plan of different financial organization. The new plan as well as the old plans all had IRS determination letters issued to the ptype sponsor including gust amendments. The client wants to know if the 4 inch stack of prior prototype documents, SPDs, forms and adoption agreements need to be kept indefinitey or can just the prior determination letters and adoption agreements be retained with the current document.

When exactly is an employee "retired" for 401(a)(9) purposes. Is a non-5% owner deemed to be "retired" soley because he works for no compensation? The employer considers him to be an employee as do all of the other employees. This particular individual hasn't received W-2 earnings from this employer in years but is subject to the rules and requirements that all other employees are subject to. I would prefer not to get into a detailed discussion of the facts, but suffice it to say that he is not a volunteer, nor is he a member of the board of trustees (it is a tax-exempt entity). In the 2003 IRS Q/As, the IRS says that "when an employee retires is a facts and circumstances determination....." This would suggest that "compensation" is not required. Any thoughts?

When formatting a number field, you have the option of enabling the currency field.

I suppose the usual would simply be $ or %,

but you could actually write more than that.

For example, if you had a grand total of deferrals on your report, you could make the currency symbol

"Wow. The total deferrals this year was

and the report will print that expression in addition to the total. just make sure to include an extra space at the end of your so called currency symbol. (Or at the beginning if you set the format to print the currency after the field.

Granted, you could accomplish the same thing with a formula, or use two fields - one being a text object and the other being your total field. But then, this tip was for the not-so adept. something easy. a simple modification to the report. shoot, this one is so easy and simple, yet it didn't even make the Crystal Reports for Dummies book.

Date fields have the same option, in fact, you can add a prefix or a suffix or both.

This all came about because we wanted to use the long form of date (e.g. December 31, 2003)

A typical formula is written as

"ADP/ACP Nondiscrimination Test for Plan Year End "+ToText({PLANEEKMTEST.YRENDDATE},"MM/dd/yyyy")

however, the date will print as 12/31/2003

By using prefix you can accomplish the same thing without even having a formula.

hey, I said this was for the not-so adept.

Can you change your plan valuation date from beginning of year to end of year?

i.e. current valuation date is 1/1/2003...can you change this to 12/31/2003?

I'm guessing the answer is no.

An employer has a discretionary match in their 410(k) plan which is pay with each payroll. In trying to cut costs, they are considering reducing their matching formula in the middle of the plan year. My research indicates this is allowable as long as they have a board of directors resolution stating the new formula, make the effective date in the future and provide an employee communication with the new match. Any other issues to be concerned with?

If an employer, in this case a city, has a contract with a union to pay all or part of the premiums for an HMO plan that is "an alternative to the city's group health plan," and the union negotiates with the HMO and has all other contact with the HMO, is the City or the union the "plan sponsor" for HIPAA purposes?

Only the union rep talks with this HMO, and if any HMO participant has a problem, they talk to the union rep for help (the union rep is a city employee, but is not part of the city's human resources/benefits department).

Participant and spouse divorce, and a separate account is established under a defined contribution plan for the former spouse alternate payee pursuant to a separate interest QDRO. Alternate payee has the right under the QDRO to designate the beneficiary for alternate payee's separate account, and alternate payee designates son as beneficiary.

Participant dies in 1997 (after separate account established), and spouse dies in 2003. Question: when does alternate payee's separate account have to be distributed to designated beneficiary son?

I dutifully read 1.401(a)(9)-8, Q&A 6, but I was not able to come up with a definitive answer.

I want to conclude somehow that altenate payee's death is to be used for required minimum distribution purposes, perhaps under 401(a)(9)(B)(iv)(II). If participant's death is used, what would this mean for distribution of alternate payee's separate account if alternate payee in this instance was still alive in 2004?

The Code and regs say the maximum deferral limitations for a 457(b) plan are to be applied on a taxable year basis. How then are the limitations to be applied in the case of a plan using a non-calendar plan year?

Was wondering if anyone had heard the news that there was guidance being issued next month that starting in January 2005, any employee who is terminated with money in the plan MUST be forced to roll to an IRA. Including terminated lost participants, or participants who dont answer election notices sent out. ALL terminated employees. Leaving money in the plan under $5k was not going to be allowed at all, even if the employer does not want to force out employees. According to speaker was only accounts $1-5k but I just cant imagine how this is going to work.

It was a Corbel seminar, I came back to the office and told everyone but they dont think this could possibly be. I cant find anything proposed on the DOL site, has anyone heard anything??

If I understand USERRA correctly, a participant on a LOA for his/her two week reservist training is entitled to contributions based on compensation not received during those two weeks. If a plan has a 3% safe harbor and a participant earns $500/week and has 2 weeks unpaid for military duty, the W2 would reflect $25,000 when in fact, the 3% should be based on $26,000, the same for a ps contribution, but not forfeitures.

Has anyone encountered this?

just wondering

I am new to employee benefits law and have a basic question. Is a government 457 plan wholly exempt from ERISA or just exempt from the disclosure requirements? And, is there a statute or regulation that provides this exemption and would point me in the right direction?

Thank you.

I've always assumed (and you remember what our teachers said about that!) that a profit sharing plan could not require a participant to complete more than 1,000 hours in order to receive an allocation of the employer contribution. However, the only 1,000 hour reference that I can find is in the safe harbor provisions under 1.401(a)(4)-2(b)(3). Is the assumption I've been operating under lo' these many years the ERISA version of an urban legend?

Can a profit sharing plan require more than 1,000 hours, so long as it passes the general test?

Thanks for any citations you can provide!

I am looking for a sample notice... and would also like to know when you send out the notice (it appears the rules have never been finalized to specify when to send it out?) Thanks for all input.

Plan year is 9/1/2001 - 8/31/2002.

Required quarterlies were $26,500 beginning 12/15/2001.

For line 9(e) on the 2001 Schedule B, when do you stop accruing the interest charge on late quarterly contributions? The employer DID NOT make the final required quarterly payment until 8/11/2003.