Are they are regulations out there that limit an Employer's policy of Waiving coverage? I do not think there are, but cannot find one way or the other.

The employer currently does not have an employee contribution to their self-insured PPO plan and their waive option can only be taken upon proof of other group coverage. For 2004, they want to place an employee contribution (pre-tax) to the self-insured PPO plan and leave the Waiver policy as is requiring proof of other group coverage.

I have only seen a waiver with proof of other coverage, group or individual in other plans. Their goal is to keep as many young, healthy workers on the plan to help offset the "sicker" members and ones who cannot get coverage elsewhere. I know this logic is not sound, but ...

What are your thoughts? I am fairly certain they can do what they want with their Waive policy requirements, but cannot find any documentation either way.

A plan sponsor submits a VCP application under EPCRS because it failed to timely amend its plan for GUST and pays the stated fee.

What if the same plan sponsor has two plans that were not timely restated? I read section 12 regarding VCP fees and it does not appear crystal clear (although I admit its Friday and I want out of this office so I read it quickly) as to whether a plan sponsor can submit both plans on one application and pay one fee or if a plan sponsor is on the hook for two applications and two fees.

Any opinions are appreciated.

Tx.

In completing the 5500, I realized that a plan should have been filing a Schedule A... however, it has been missed since 2000. It was filed in 1999 but we haven't received any DOL letters/requests for it yet. Do I go back and amend 2000 and 2001? I have never received any information from the insurance company (and the info I did receive this year isn't complete- they only provide Part I data). Will they be able to come up with the past data? Or is there an entry I can put in that they did not provide it?

Advice or suggestions?

I have 3 questions:

1. If the deferral is coming out of an annual bonus, is the contribution taxable?

2. If life insurance is the funding vehicle, the premium would equal the amount of the after-tax deferral contribution.

3. Is there any way to use the pre-tax amount of the deferral as the premium (ie; $50,000 bonus after-tax is a $30,000 contribution (40% tax bracket).)

Thanks!

From reading Notices 98-52 and 2000-3, I see no prohibition from switching between safe harbor matching contributions and safe harbor non-elective contributions on a year-by-year basis as long as (1) proper notice specifying the method is given each year and (2) the plan is properly amended to specify the method.

1. Does anyone see any problems with this or has anyone seen anything specifically permitting or prohibiting this?

2. Can anyone read Notice 2000-3 to permit a mid-year switch from the safe-harbor matching contribution to the safe harbor nonelective contribution (i.e., plan adopts safe harbor match, exits mid-year before making a contribution, and elects non-elective method on or before December 1)? Is this possible or would it fail due to the fact that the notice would not accurately describe the safe harbor formula?

The 100% owner of a business has reached age 65 and must pay his ex-wife the amount due from his defined benefit plan pursuant to a QDRO issued 5 years ago. The plan is underfunded,and if Mr. Owner were to want his benefit today he would be subject to the restriction of 1.401(a)(4)-5(b). Does the restriction carry through to the QDRO distribution as well? Or does the QDRO amount stand on it's own for purposes of determining if the restriction applies? Or does the restriction not apply at all?

I have recently obtained a client who has $105,000 in (RO) assets, of which $70,000 of the RO was to Employer Stock. The client has a 401(k) Plan. I know there are limitations of how much can be invested in Employer Stock in a 401(k) Plan, however an attorney set up this plan and said that he could do this. Is there something I am missing? I do not normally deal with Employer Stock. And if this is allowed, does the stock have to be audited by an independent appraiser (how to report on 5500)?

Thank you so much for any help you can give me regarding this!

Does anyone know what the participant reporting requirements are for these plans? Specifically looking for what are allowed distributions and not allowed; what the distribution "triggers" are, e.g., death, disability, post 59 1/2, etc. IF any - do they follow 401(a)(9) guidelines? Are they 1099 or W2 reported?

Also, are these reporting requirements for the insurance company who issued the contracts or the plan administrator, if there is one?

Thanks.

Rev. Proc 2003-44 sets out the VCP filing "fees" and Audit CAP "sanctions". Plan assets may be used to pay administrative expenses. I sure I'm splitting a semantical hair, but since the VCP costs are specified as "fees", not "sanctions", giving the language of the Rev. Proc. its ordinary meaning, has anyone considered making the argument that a sponsor who files under VCP for nonamending may pay the costs out of plan assets?

For the IRA providers out there: do you as a standard have a beneficiary sign a new adoption agreement for an IRA? Or do you rely on the old contract? My reason for thinking I ought to get them is that, on our form, it enables the beneficiary to appoint beneficiaries for their share and documents more clearly that they understand and are bound by our contract. I would like to hear what others do.

Participant wants hardship for medical expenses; however, the medical expenses are for orthodontia for her 13 yr old daughter. I'm not sure if that's going to qualify. Any ideas or cites? Thanks.

We have a plan with a PSA and a brokerage account. I know we need to file a schedule D for the PSA, but do we need to include the brokerage account??

I faxed (July 24, 2003) in my Benefit change form to my employer along with documemtation indicating that my husband had gained new employement and that we are currently on their insurance plan.

I received the following response back from my "If you gained coverage within the last 31 days, or will be gaining coverage, than, in order to be able to process the change, please obtain documentation stating the date that your coverage will begin. This information should be on their company letterhead and signed by the person releasing the information."

My husband's employer will only mail the required documentation, which he was informed that he will receive in 4 to 6 weeks. He gained his new employment on July 1, 2003 and had to wait for the benefits forms to arrived in the mail. He completed the forms July 23, 2003, and his employer back date the start of the insurance to July1, 2003.

I do not think that they need to know when the coverage starts. The "qualifying" event is his new job NOT his new insurance. If he took a new job and chose not to take out insurance with the new job I would still be able to make changes as the job is the qualifying event?

Any suggestion as to effectively handle the situation? My employer wants me to have the effective date from my husband's employer by July 31, 2003.

We were wondering what other TPA firms do with regard to charging fees for document amendments.

We have restated our plans for GUST and included EGTRRA with the GUST restatement. We charged a fee in the range of $400- $600 for the GUST/EGTRRA amendments.

Now the 2003 Post-EGTRRA amendments now have to be adopted. What do most TPA firms charge for these kind of amendments?

Do most have their clients on a maintenance fee where all amendments are covered under a monthly or annual fee?

If so, what is the range for a maintenance fee?

Or, do most charge on a per amendment basis? If so what is the range.

Does anyone out there have input for me?

We just want to make sure we are not over-charging or under charging or billing for something that most firms do not expect their clients to pay.

Thanks

A plan uses age nearest birthday as of 1/1 to compute a lump sum in a given calendar year.

For eg. if someone were born 8/1/50 and received a lump sum on 8/1/2003, the plan would use an age of 52, since that was the age nearest birthday at 1/1/03. And since the lump sum is the pv of a deferred to age 65 annuity the lump sum is thus less than if they used his exact age of 53 at the time of distribution.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this method? And know of any cites addressing such an issue? The Plan is in effect paying a lower lump sum than it appears they should in many situations (about half the time).

Thanks.

Hi -

A plan sponsor has a 401(k) plan that permits participants to invest employee contributions in a Company stock fund. The company now realizes that for a limited time unregistered Company stock was offered for purchase by employees under the Company stock fund in violation of the Securities Act of 1933. The company stock should have been registered on a Form S-8.

12(a)(1) of the 1933 Act provides a right of action for rescission against a seller who has offered unregistered securities in violation of the registration provisions of the 1933 Act. Therefore, participants who purchased the unregistered Company stock have a right to rescind the purchase and recover the amount they paid for the stock under the 1933 Act.

My question is, do the plan fiduciaries have a fiduciary duty under ERISA to notify plan participant of their rescission rights? I would imagine it would be prudent to do so, but I have not found anything discussing such a situation. I realize this is a bit obscure, but if there is anyone out there that has encountered a similar situation or has run across anything discussing this, I would greatly appreciate your advice! Thanks.

We have a long time client who has maintained a db plan with us for years. He is turning the company over to his kids and decided to terminate the db plan in 2002. We have distributed the funds and the client did need to contribute appx $250,000 to meet the funds obligations of the plan. We thought everything was proceeding nicely until the Son of the client mentioned he's done well lately in the market with his 401(k) plan. I asked him about it. Long story short, the son set up a 401(k) plan with a competitor of ours. The all (including our client- Dad) deferred the max. It is also a safe harbor so 3% 100% vested contributions were made. I am not sure if they are planning to make a ps or match contribution.

Our Actuary is stating there is a problem. As it stands now, I believe the deferrals are ok but the safe harbor contribution puts them over the limit. Am I correct?

The CPA is saying the max is 25% of total comp, not a nickle more. We know they can use the db required funding amount. The 5500s have not been filed.

Our Actuary says we should file our 5500 as is and move on. He feels we should have been told about the 401(K). We can't change our numbers. The term papers went to the PBGC and IRS for determination.

The client clearly has a problem. Anyone have any ideas??

I guess we were not informed of the new 401(k) because they felt bad we would not be handling it.

Any thoughts, ideas, suggestions would be appreciated.

We are taking over a new comp plan for period ending 12/31/02. Two Dr.'s each made well over $200,000 and each own 50% of the corporation. One Dr. has waived out of the plan.

There are two groups in the plan. 1.) Keys 2.) All others

When I run the tests and compute the allocations, do I count the one dr.'s comp that waived out of the plan at all? Do I put him in Group 1 with a -0- contribution? (Seems discriminatory). For 410B would I include him in the count?

Help.

Has anyone tried to sort the Loan Payments report by division? I've tried adding the rptee table to the report but I'm getting mixed results. If I link it off of rptplan, I cannot get anything. If I link it off of eeloan using planid and ssnum, I can get a report but it gives me all payment history, rather than just the year or date range that I'm looking for.

Does anyone have any thoughts?

Tim

Plan provides that participants may only have one outstanding participant plan loan at a time. Principal residence loan terms cannot be longer than 15 years.

A participant currently has a 5-year principal residence loan. Can the participant extend the loan to 10 years?

Thanks.