Please help. I was a participant in a DB Plan. from 2001 to 2003, I was terminated (not laid off). They said the plan has a 5 yr cliff schedule. Is this in compliance?? reason I ask is I kn ow DC plans ( 401k, etc) in 2002 with EGTRRA cannot have a 5yr cliff anymore.

Please help, what should I do? Am i accurate in my EGTRRA assumption with DB Plans?

I am the office manager for a company with three full-time ees. We currently have group health ins (a PPO w/$25 co-pay and $1000 ded) w/AMS and our premium seems extremely high: coverage for male age 67, male age 61, female age 44, plus spouses, will be $4,000/month as of our 8/1/03 renewal.

We have one ee in TN, one in TX, and one in NM (ah, the wonders of the internet!).

I am getting quotes from an independent insurance agent in Texas and another independent agent in Tennessee. Neither seems particularly confident, however, that they will get much of a reduction in premium. Does this premium seem normal? I've found several sources that refer to health care costs averaging $5000-$8000 per year per ee. I know "average" is a very broad term but we're getting ready to pay $16,000 per year, which seems like a huge difference.

We're open to PEOs, employee leasing, etc. but run into brick walls because we only have three ees. ADP does our payroll but has a 10-ee minimum for group health. Does anybody have any suggestions? Thank you!

When testing this report in Admin, I get the following error "error 2147191858. This field name is not known."

I'm attaching the report so you might see what I'm doing wrong.

Thanks for all your help

Heather

BTW, I also couldn't upload my .rpt and the file is only 93k.

A husband and wife are both doctors. Each has their own practice. The husband has a db and the wife has a psp. In addition they share an ee. The ee works part time for the husband and part time for the wife. I don't know if she is covered under either of the plans since she is part time.

I am pretty sure that this is a control group since there is attribution between husband and wife. Not to mention that they share an ee.The doctors disagree with me stating that if it was a control group, their current tpa would have told them.

Any help is appreciated.

Is there anywhere in the regs that say that severance pay is not included for comp in 401(k) plans?

Would a plan amendment that says that participants hired after a certain date are ineligible for a plan be a disqualifying provision under 410(a)(1)(A)(ii) after say two and 1/2 years have passed, even if the group still in the plan passes 410(b)?

This assumes an active, not frozen plan.

Is the only way around this to make this group eligible but give them nothing?

During the recent EBIA tele-web seminar one of the poll questions was "If a spouse or child is dropped from coverage at open enrollment, do you send COBRA information with the HIPAA Certificate?"

Of those responding 50 said yes and 209 said no. Our Company has never COBRA'd those voluntarily dropping coverage because we made them sign a waiver form.

How is everyone else handling this situation. As can be imagined - we're talking about a lot of extra work.

Your responses please. Thanks.

We maintain several self-insured health plans (medical, dental, FSA and EAP) but only one plan met the $5m threshold - our medical plan. We sent the privacy notice to all active employees eligible to particpate or participating in the health plans and to former employees participating in the health plans. The notice was not specific to the medical plan.

Question: An employee who waived medical coverage (in a fully insured plan) and dental coverage (in our self-insured plan) in 2000 has requested access to his PHI. What are our obligations?

Question: Should we change our privacy notice to be specific to the medical plan?

Thanks.

Has anyone upgraded to 8.2? If so, any issues?

Also, any idea when 8.4 is to be released? Or is it 8.3? I can't remember from training. Anyhow, just trying to determine if it's worthwhile to wait for the next or go ahead with 8.2.

Thanks.

Heather

An investment advisor would like to have participants' funds invested in a Default Portfolio if they do not choose available funds. Does this need to be in the Plan document? What other notification may be required?

What are the pros and cons of having a plan decare in their docs that they are 404© compliant?

QUESTION

Can a 401 (k) plan be amended prospectively to exclude a class of

employees that already have participation in the plan?

For example, the current plan has no class exclusions. Effective August

1, 2003, the employer wishes to amend the plan to exclude "clerks."

Currently, 5 clerks are eligible participants in the plan. Notwithstanding 410(b),

is it possible to exclude the 5 participants with the amendment?

I cannot find any cite prohibiting from doing so.

I am working with a client that would like to set up a premium only plan with an effective date of 8/1. Their fiscal year, and plan year for their profit sharing plan is from 7/1-6/30.

Are there any rules stating when a cafeteria plan must start? Does it have to be for an entire year in its first year, and if it does, can it use the fiscal year instead of a calendar year?

Thank you.

If an employee converts his SEP/SARSEP/SIMPLE into a Roth IRA, then learns that he has a failed conversion and wants to recharacterize, do the assets go back into the original IRA type or are they recharacterized into a traditional IRA?

A plan allows participants to refinance (replace) loans in order to take out a greater amount that is needed. I know that the sum of the replaced loan and the new loan cannot be greater than 50% of the vested balance as of the origination date of the new loan. My question is should the vested balance used to calculate the 50% include the value of the old loan?

I just discovered while doing the accounting for the 2002 plan year that the refunds of excess contribution for the 2001 plan year did not occur. I am reading Revenue Proc. 2001-17 and am a little confused about my options. Appendix A.03, OPERATIONAL FAILURES AND CORRECTIONS UNDER VCS says I can correct by allocating a QNEC to bring the ADP up to a passing level. I believe this option is not available to me because the QNEC would have had to have been made 12/31/2001 as the prior testing method was used for 2001. Am I correct?

Next option is the 1 to 1 correction method. The way I read this, I allocate an amount equal to the excess contributions adjusted for investment gains or losses to all nonhighly compensated employees who were eligible to defer during the plan year. (Is this the plan year tested, or the plan year in which the refunds should have occurred?). I also believe these contributions are subject to the vesting requirements.

Am I on the right track?

notice 98-52 VIII E

clearly states

"...a plan that uses the safe harbor methods to satisfy the ADP or ACP test for a plan year is treated as using the current year testing method for that year and, thus, is subject to the rules...relating to changes from current year to prior year testing...

so for you document experts, does that mean the document MUST say testing method is current? If the document says 'use prior year testing' does the notice simply override it?

We have a client who wants to set up a new safe harbor plan effective 7/1/03 (no other plan in place) and I have a couple questions.

1. Should the notice have gone out 30 days prior to 7/1.

2. There is an employee who was full time in the first 6 month of the year, but went part time as of 7/1, will be paid W-2 wages of $1,000 and commission as a independent contractor going forward. Does he have to be included in the new plan?

3. Should we ask the client to wait until 1/1/2004 to make the plan effective.

Has any one heard of Paradigm Solutions Group, LLC / The Healthier Plan

They promote having employee pay 100% of medical premium through a 125 plan. then reimburse medical expenses under a MERP/HRA (reimbursed amount is close to the after tax cost of the employee). The net effect to employee paycheck is zero, but employer saves money even after admin fees. Typical savings to employer claimed is 10 to 20%. Employee is supposed to keep receipts of qualified expenses and submitt at year end. Meanwhile the employee all year long is receiving reimbursements under the MERP. I asked what if the employee has no receipts or expenses and was told they could sign off stating they had them or make the MERP reimbursements taxable to the employee. Any thoughts or experiences with this program?

I have a client that has already received funding waivers in past years, and for which we submitted a waiver application for 2002. The client recently informed us that they may be able to find the funds to satisfy 2002's requirement.

Has anyone ever rescinded an application for a funding waiver?

Does rescinding the application have any effect on the three waivers in fifteen years rule?

Are there any other consequences to rescinding an application currently before the IRS and PBGC???

Thanks for your help!