We are a self-funded ERISA plan. We are contemplating a change to our enrollment and eligibility rules that would require a spouse who has health coverage available through an employer to take coverage with his/her employer as a condition of enrolling in our plan. We would not place any restrictions on children, only a spouse with an employer sponsored health plan.

Has anyone had experience with this approach? Are there any legal problems with it that are not obvious?

This has probably been covered before but I couldn't find it.

Our benefit plan has a 30 day notification requirement for status changes.

Our plan operates on a calendar year basis.

Our employee has a support agreement (Dated 1/03) requiring her ex-spouse to cover their child and states that father must provide proof of this coverage, but he has not done so until now. She claims to have attempted to get proof for 9 months by email, letters, and even involved her attorney. She now has a copy of the insurance card that states the child was enrolled 1/15/03 under the father's plan.

Now she wants to drop coverage for her son retroactive to January (and get a refund of premiums paid). I can't find any discussion of time limits in the regs, probably since this is an optional provision left up to the plan administrator. Is it permissible to 1.) allow a retroactive change in these circumstances since she just received proof of this coverage after months of trying; OR 2.) allow a prospective change from the date she received proof of coverage; OR 3.) She's stuck until 2004?

Any opinions or citations appreciated!

A client is a real estate agent and sponsors his own one man DB plan. He has the opportunity to loan a developer money from the plan as an investment. Once the developer builds on the land the real estate agent will have the opportunity to rent/lease/sell space and receive normal commissions on such rentals/leases/sales. Would this be considered a prohibitive transaction? Thanks.

Although I know that state law is pre-empted when dealing with ERISA plans and subrogation issues, a defendant in a case seeking a constructive trust over a member's recovery from a third party for personal injuries is claiming that because the member paid "premiums" reimbursing the Fund would be unjust enrichment. The Defendant's attorney is confusing premiums and employer contributions. (The defendant is the employer).

Under these circumstances, if state law did apply, would premiums and contributions be treated differently?

Any information would be helfpul.

Do amounts contributed as catch up contributions to a SIMPLE IRA affect the ability to make catch up contributions to the plan of another employer such as a 401(k) or 403(b)?

my understanding is you return the 402(g) excess and issue a 1099. also you include the excess for HCE's but not for NHCE's. is this in in the regs and do they permit other methods of returning the excess such as returning the money through payroll?

I normally live in the cyber world of investors using a variety of channels/sites to communicate with analysts, brokers, hedge fund mgrs and investors. Many of my business associates lost friends two years ago on September 11. A few firms located in the WTC, above where the planes struck, were decimated that day.

Yesterday, one of the analysts I admire said he kept his kids home from school. They went out an bought a range of foods and took packages down to their local police and fire stations. I thought this was a great idea. Although I live far from NYC, and I first read about this in the afternoon, I did some fast shopping for a few cheesecakes and at dusk dropped them off with a simple expression of thanks for the public services.

I regret that my kids are off at college and could not participate today. Perhaps we will make this a family tradition in the future.

Thanks for you patience as I digress from the technical questions about IRAs and Roths.

Never used a message board before so hopefully I'm doing it correctly. I've been trying to find information about in service non-hardship withdrawals which I understand allow certain employees to take withdrawals from their 401(k)'s & 403(b)'s to roll over to a self-directed IRA while still employed without penalty or taxes. The purpose is to reduce fiduciary liability on the part of the employer and was initiated by the Enron problem.

I understand it involves irs sect 402 and treasury reg 401-1(b)(1)(iii) and have searched irs.gov to no avail. Can anyone direct me to resources to find out more about it?

we are a new s-corp and as such started a 401k. s-corp started 9-1-03 as did the 401k. We have 12/31 year end on both.

we're facing a short plan year for the first year of operation. where do I find all pertinent information regarding a short plan year.... I realize some things need to be prorated, whereas others may not.... I really need to find all research on this to move ahead.

Company stock was an investment option under the 401k plan. The employer removed the stock as an investment option under the plan and liquidated the fund so all assets are in cash. Sufficient notice was provided to affected plan participants. Each "stock account" was mapped to a guaranteed account. Each affected participant's account absorbed the stock liquidation transaction fees.

My question is - should the client reimburse the affected accounts for the fees--implying that this should have been a settlor expense ? Is this a fiduciary breach? Thanks.

Hello,

I’m working on starting a career in HR after several years as an executive assistant and office manager. I’d like to start learning as much as possible about HR duties and functions, and especially about how to use any special software or computer tools, since those worry me the most.

What online learning resources (hopefully free!) do/did you use the most and find the most useful? I’m not sure if I’d benefit most from tutorials, simple how-tos, or advice columns. I’d like to know what’s helped other people.

Thanks SO MUCH for any recommendations! Wish me luck.

Yours truly,

Barb

Can someone please clarify this issue for me:

DB plan year end 12/31

If you are using EGTRRA provisions for the 2002 plan year end - did the employer have to adopt a model amendment prior to the end of the 12/31/02 plan year or can they adopt the EGTRRA amendment prior to 09/30/03?

Thank you.

I am trying to figure out which participants I need to report on the SSA form. The instructions say to report a participant if they separate from service covered by the plan in a plan year, and the participant is entitled to a deferred vested benefit under the plan.

Do I report even the ones that only have $50.00 in vested benefits, or does "entitled to a deferred vested benefit" mean only those who have a vested benefit over $5,000 and have the right to defer until a later date.

It says that a separated participant must be reported no later than on the Schedule SSA filed for the plan year following the plan year in which separation occurred (or earlier). So does this mean that on the 12/31 2002 5500 (calendar plan), I need to report all participants who terminated in 2001 that have not been paid out as of the date the 2002 5500 is due?

Any guidance would be appreciatd.

Thanks

Hi,

I am trying to remember the rules on which employees a SEP IRA must cover and I don't have my ERISA outline book to refer to (ouch).

Can someone refresh my memory? Must the SEP be offered to all employees? I seem to recall it must cover all employees who have worked 2 out of the last five years, or something to that affect?

Please let me know.

Many thanks!

I'm running the ABPT using the "annual method" and have 2 plans in the testing group - an active DB with 2 HCE's and 10 NHCE's and a "frozen" DB with 4 HCEs and 20 NHCE's ( also, the "frozen" plan was frozen before the testing year ) .

Question : In determining my actual benefit percentage per 1.410(b)-5© do I divide by 6 for the HCE's & 30 for the NHCE's or different numbers like 2 & 10 ?

Also, assume the number of HCE's and NHCE's given above are the appropriate numbers.

I have a fiscal year plan ended 6/30/03 which fails ADP. The plan has a "Ketchup" provision and the failing HCE is catch-up eligible. Additionally, he had not used any of the available $2000.00 as of 6/30/03. Subsequently, the employee has surpassed the 2003 402(g) limit and used $81.00 worth of catch-up in the 6/30/04 plan year. My problem is that the 6/30/03 ADP test is not recognizing that he has already used $81.00 when it calculates the catch-up and refund. Has anyone else encountered this? Any solutions?

I have posted an incident with Relius.

A mechanic who worked out of his home had a dog

named Mace. Mace had a bad habit of eating all the grass in the mechanic's

lawn, so the mechanic had to keep Mace inside. The grass eventually became

overgrown.

One day the mechanic was working on a car in his backyard and dropped his

wrench losing it in the tall grass. He couldn't find it for the life of him,

so he decided to call it a day.

That night, Mace escaped from the house and ate all the grass in the

backyard. The next morning the mechanic went outside and saw his wrench

glinting in the sunlight. Realizing what had happened he looked up to the

heavens and proclaimed...

"A grazing Mace, how sweet the hound, that saved a

wrench for me!"

Small DB plan covering doctor and 4 staff. Doctor's PVAB in the plan comprises about 80% of total PVABs. Doctor wants to purchase undeveloped land with plan assets. Recognizing the fact that there are a whole host of other issues related to having real estate in the plan, what % of plan assets could he use for this purpose and still meet the diversification obligations?

When reporting a distribution to an alternate payee under a nongovernmental 457(b) plan, do you use Form 1099-R or W-2? The instructions to Form 1099-R discuss the reporting for distributions to participants (W-2) and beneficiaries (1099-R), but are silent as to alternate payees. Any help would be appreciated.

Could you help me out with the following?

A company offers a cafeteria plan that allows for the payment of premiums to the company's group health plan, a medical FSA and a dependent care FSA. The group medical has an age out policy for dependent children up to age 25 if still in college. An employee has a child that is age 23, not in school and is still a dependent of the employee. The plan allows for COBRA for dependents that age-out of the group medical plan. I understand that the coverage to the dependent can be extended for 36 months and the employee can pay the cost of this premium on a pre-tax basis through the cafeteria plan - all on the condition that the child is a dependent of the employee.

After 36 months of coverage, the plan would offer to convert the child to an individual policy of the medical plan provider. At this point, could the employee continue to pay for this coverage with pre-tax dollars? Again, assuming that the child is still a dependent?

I appreciate any comments on this. Thanks.