So law firm is made up of:

1. Multiple ALC's who share ownership of the law firm
2. Other ALC's who share office space and staffing, but not ownership in the main firm

The law firm has its own 401k plan. The other ALC's have their own individual law firm. All of them are tested as an Affiliated Service Group.

Now, the other ALC's have completely left the firm. I'm pretty sure there is no ASG anymore.

Greetings all, 

I used to work as a retirement plan administrator in India for 6+ year. Completed Retirement plan fundamentals 1& 2.
I moved to US before 4 years and recently got my work authorization to work in US. I started searching for jobs in different online portals. No reply or response for my application. 
 

can some one suggest how to approach for job in 401k field. Since I do not have any work experience in USA and I have 4 years break in service. 
 

Any leads or referrals will be appreciated. 
 

thanks in advance 

Plan states forfeitures are reallocated - must be employed on last day and 1,000 hours. Exception death, disability or retirement.

Platform stating the client wanted to use forfeitures to reduce the contribution. Amendment signed 5/1/2021. This was part of  the amendment changing eligible to date of hire vs 1,000 hour. Employee eligible 4/1/2021 and died the next day. Platform saying the amendment would be a cut back in benefits for her. She was eligible for the reallocation of forfeitures before the amendment was signed. 

Client  never wanted to use forfeitures to offset the employer contribution.  No one can figure out why the platform made this change. What if anything an they do to reallocate the funds for 2021.  We are not talking about a lot  of money.  

I know this is a document issue.  The amendment states - Costs of Administration. All reasonable costs and expenses (including legal, accounting, and employee
communication fees) incurred by the Administrator and the Trustee in administering the Plan and Trust may be paid from the
forfeitures (if any) resulting under Section 11.08, from the suspense account described in this Section, if any, or from the
remaining Trust Fund. All such costs and expenses paid from the remaining Trust Fund shall, unless allocable to the
Accounts of particular Participants, be charged against the Accounts of all Participants as provided in the Service Agreement.  This is what the recordkeeping is saying requires the forfeitures to be used to offset the er contribution.  I

There is not an option in the AA to say forfeitures are reallocated 

Need some help......

We don't work with these but a referring advisor is asking - they have a client who started a simple IRA July 1.  The payroll company says compensation for the full year is counted.  So that if the person contributes 6% from July through Dec they will end up at 3% deferral for the full year and get 3% match on their full year pay rather than 3% on their pay from July through Dec.    I figured the reason the IRS imposed the Oct 1 set-up deadline was to make sure employees got the 3% match for at least 3 months since the owner could make the max deferral within those three months.   The payroll company disagrees with that apparently.

Comments?  Thank you.

I posted here about this matter earlier, but there have been more developments.

Here is the original post:  

In short, the Participant kept disputing the Order, but was unable to provide anything that would prevent the Order from being a QDRO and processed.  We had a valid, court-certified order and we began the procedures for processing it.

Now, the Participant has started a claim for benefits under the Claims Procedures of the 401(k) Plan.  Accordingly, we are putting on hold making any payments to the Alternate Payee.  Is this the appropriate move?  We are legally obligated to follow the Claims Procedures, but those take time.  The Order does not provide for any earnings/losses on the amount awarded to the Alternate Payee, so the delay is actually costing the AP money (although, maybe not, given the market).

Should we exhaust the Claims Procedures before we process the QDRO?

Hi

DB/DC combo plan.

Termination of DB is a possibility (PBGC covered). Assume freeze date 7/31/2022 (small enough for 15 day rule) and assume termination date 9/30/2022. Distribution for the DB may or may not happen by 12/31/2022, possibly spills into 2023 as the rates seem to be getting better for 417e.

DC has 401k/SH/PS options.

What salaries should be used to determine the DC SH and PS portions as well as combo testing?

Thank you

Good morning, 

Is anyone else having any trouble getting in touch with Datair?  We do not seem to be able to raise them via any normal means - email, phone, etc. and we were wondering if anyone else is having trouble.

Thank you!

I hope BenefitsLink neighbors will help me with an unscientific survey. Any results will be used only for a research project. And I’ll use responses only anonymously and in the aggregate.

What percentage of your work time is used in a proceeding that requires you to file a Form 2848 or other notice of an appearance before the IRS?

(For example, my estimate for 2006-2021 is about 3/100 of one percent. That is, about 99.97 of my work time did not involve defending an IRS examination or presenting a request for a ruling or determination.)

What is your estimate of the percentage of people who regularly provide advice about retirement plans who have never filed a Form 2848 or other notice of an appearance before the IRS?

Hi. Our prior retirement plan provider (VALIC) sent us two small checks (one for $1 and another for $17) stating that they charged the wrong interest rate on escrow amounts held under the contracts which were securing outstanding loan amounts under the plan. Thus, they are refunding for the participants that were affected. Does anyone have guidance on what to do with these checks? There is no indication about who these relate to.

I've done this before but it was not during a restatement year.  A small plan (husband, wife, 1 employee), husband and wife are divorcing.  Can I simply prepare the Cycle 3 restatement docs and take her off as a trustee?  Or does she need to formally acknowledge and agree to no longer be a trustee in amendment form in addition to the restatement?

Thanks

One of the requirements to be able pass coverage using the Average Benefits Percentage Test is to have a reasonable classification.

We have a cross-tested profit sharing plan that does not pass 410(b) 67%.

In terms of the allocation, the plan indicates that each participant is in his/her own group. Does that by itself mean that the plan does not have a reasonable classification and therefore cannot use the average benefits percentage test?

Thanks!

Client sponsors a safe harbor non elective and wants to add voluntary contribution to their accounts but no NHCEs will be making voluntary contribs.  Plan ill need ADP testing, that is a given.

With voluntary contribution made only for HCEs, will need ACP test which obviously will fail w/o  QMAC. If 3% QMAC for all employees will pass ACP, is a flat % of comp allowed?

Client understands the elective contributions will be subject to ADP testing.

Can plan have ADP as well as ACP testing each year??

Suppose the following:

A 401(k) safe harbor retirement plan covers two related companies - Company A and Company B.  Employee has ownership in both Company A and Company B.

Employee has wages of $30,000 in Company A and defers the maximum pre-tax deferral to the retirement plan.  Company A matches those wages up to 4% for a match of $1,200 ($30,000 x 4%).

Employee also has wages of $100,000 in Company B.  No employee deferrals here since those were already maxed in Company A.

Do the wages get aggregated since the Companies operate one plan such that the wages in Company B should also be matched?  Does Company B owe a match to Employee of $100,000 x 4% = $4,000?

A reference to authoritative literature on this would be helpful.  I have searched with different terminology but have not found what I need.  Thanks.

I know the IRS has said you can define your otherwise excludable employees either by direct reference to 410(a)'s statutory dates, OR you can use the plan's entry dates, OR you can ignore entry dates (like one might do under a strict reading of the carve-out rule).

I normally like my exclusions as defined under 410(a).  But, I've got a testing situation where a 2021 HCE was hired early January 2020, made his 200K in earnings, became match-eligible as of APRIL 1, 2021 (one YoS, age 21, quarterly entry), and then terminated a few weeks later after becoming eligible for a big hunk of match.  So, before his July 5, 2021, latest possible entry date under 410(a).  And therefore, I'd normally deem the guy excludable. 

This is not for ADP purposes - his plan is safe harbor.  

But, it needs to be aggregated for 410(b) purposes with a second plan within the entire controlled group.  The other plan is slightly different because its match eligibility is one YoS, age 18, and monthly entry dates.  (And its SH match formula is slightly different, too.)

The hundred dollar question (oh, we'll bill them more than that) is:

Should I be defining my excludables based on whichever plan the employer sponsors?  For instance, since my HCE guy is in the quarterly entry plan, he's not excludable because he properly came in on April 1 after his year.  

But let's say I have two employees, one each at separate companies in the separate plans.  Let's say they both started 5-15-2020 and terminated 6-12-2021.  The guy in the quarterly-entry plan would be excludable (terminated before 7-1) and the guy in the monthly-entry plan would not (entered 6-1), presuming I'm using a "plan's entry date" approach.

Does that sound like an appropriate approach, as opposed to using one set of criteria for both groups of employees?  I have to pass the average benefit percentage test for the quarterly-entry plan because its ratio percentage is in the 40s (SH % = 23.75) so I need to be sure who's in the "main" test out of both groups of employees. 

And I don't want that lone HCE on his own, as the otherwise excludable test for his plan would also fail 410b and require extra employer contributions for ABPT purposes....maybe a lot.

--bri

Old instructions for changing a plan name or address said to send a letter or fax to the office that issued the EIN, and indeed there were several offices for various geographic areas. Nowadays, we get EINs online. There is a single fax number and address (Cincinnati) on the newest instructions if you want to get an EIN that way; not sure if that would work for a change.

Further muddling things is the fact that this particular EIN has likely been de-activated, with no activity since 2017. The address for re-activation is in Ogden UT (different fax from the Cincy address for changes). 

Any experience with changes and reactivations at the same time? After googling all of this for an hour, I'm inclined to just get a new number.

For 30+ years, I drafted plan documents for clients and consulted them when issues arised.  Most of my clients (small professional practices) used a local investment adviser/broker to invest plan assets, and a local accounting firm to perform allocation/testing computations and Forms 5500 and SARs.

Some time ago I notified my plan document/consulting clients that I would no longer be a provider of plan documents, though am yet available for design, operations and fix-it consultations.  Since July 1, I've been contacted by a few 'procrastinators' looking for a source of just plan documents for Cycle 3 restatements and later updates.

If you so provide documents separate and apart from other services, and would be interested in either referrals from me or providing a document with me involved in the design, please e-mail me at johnsimmonslaw@gmail.com.

Thank you

Hi

Sorry if this was discussed before.

My first age 72 calculations for 2 different scenarios and want to confirm my understanding:

Scenario 1: Participant turning 72 on 9/1/2022, first RMD is due by 4/1/2023 and based on 1/1/2022 AB (fully vested)

If they want to take by 12/31/2022, can they take 1/1/2022 AB*12?

Scenario 2: Participant already receiving RMDs for the past few years. The past # were based on old tables and they do not need to be adjusted, correct?

The new AB portion will be calculated based on the new tables, correct?

Any corrections/comments are appreciated.

Thank you

Large welfare plan client submitted DFVCP payment in 2020 but has never submitted a filing (we do not have a service preparation contract with this client). The group likely crossed 100 participant threshold in 2013 or 2014, but not 100% sure without doing more research. What is their best course of action in this situation? Should they reach out to an ERISA attorney to assist?

Thank you in advance! 

A participant who also happens to be a Plan Trustee took out a plan loan a couple of years ago.  The participant terminated in 2020, but was not removed as a Trustee until 2022.  The documents specifically provide that a party in interest under Erisa 3(14) who terminates employment with an outstanding loan will be treated as an employee whos employment has not terminated and for any other applicants, the loans become due and payable at termination.  Our question is this.   At the point this former employee was removed as a Trustee is that loan due and payable?

Thank you

Our plan currently has a discretionary true-up match with no allocation service requirements.  Is it ok to amend the plan for the current plan year to add a last day of employment rule or do we have to wait until next year? We want to exclude terminated employees from receiving the true-up match for 2022, if the company decides to make one.  Thanks.