What records must a custodian/trustee keep and for how long must they be kept?

What are the record retention rules for custodians/trustees of IRA accounts? That is, what IRA records must be kept and how long must they be kept?

Any suggestions on how to coordinate short term disability payments with workers comp ttd payments? Which payment should I use to reduce the other? Since workers' comp ttd is a tax-free benefit, how does this affect our std benefit which is paid via payroll.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Our tuition plan requires employees to stay employed with our company 2 years after they receive reimbursement. We also require them to sign a promissory note.

Unfortunately, we have had quite a few people leave before the expiration of their promissory note. Any suggestions on how to collect? Collection agency, court orders?

When is a plan administrator allowed to segregate a participant's account to provide for an alternate payee's interest prior to the determination that a DRO is a QDRO? My client has learned from a participant that a marital dissoluation agreement has been entered in his divorce but not DRO has been submitted to the plan for determination. My client believes that it will be some time (if ever) before the divorce attorneys prepare a DRO, most likely because the parties to the divorce don't have the money to pay the attorneys to do this. My client wants to ensure that the alternate payee does not come back at a later time after a QDRO is approved and argue that her interest was impacted because of a delay in segregating her interest in the plan from that of her ex-husband. I have reviewed Section 414(p) and it only requires the plan administrator to segregate the interests "during any period in which ht iessue of whether a domestic lreations order is a qualified domestic relations order is being determined". In my case, there is no domestic relations order yet. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

If an employer is generally relying on the fully-insured exception to most of HIPAA's privacy requirements and only receiving Summary Health Information and enrollment/disenrollment information, should the employer still be getting Business Associate Agreements with respect to their fully-insured plans if they use a payroll provider or outside service provider for enrollment (e.g., provides web-based enrollment, administration processing, etc.) or a broker that also may receive enrollment/disenrollment or other PHI?

http://www.ppbfh.com/index.htm

Excerpt: "Powers Phillips, P.C., is a small law firm located in downtown Denver, Colorado within convenient walking distance of over fifty bars and a couple of doughnut shops. Powers Phillips also maintains a small satellite office-in-exile on the cow-covered hillsides near Carbondale, Colorado, where it puts out to pasture some of its aging attorneys."

The message boards assume you live in London (long story omitted).

If you live further west (e.g., in the United States), the time shown to you by the message boards won't be correct unless you tell the message boards software which time zone to use when displaying the time.

Here's how to do it:

1. First make sure you're logged in. If the front page of the message boards at http://benefitslink.com/boards/ says "Welcome, Guest!" then you're not logged in yet.

2. Then use the following link to change your time zone setting:

click here

If you get a screen that says you're not logged in, hit your browser's refresh/reload key; that oughta change the screen and let you change your time zone setting. If you still get a screen that says you're not logged in, please let me know (davebaker@benefitslink.com).

Once you've selected your time zone, click on the "Change my account settings" button at the bottom of that page.

A plan's termination date is same as the last day of the plan year, 12/31/02. If the plan liquidates participant accounts and sends checks on 12/31/02, have the assets been distributed and the last Form 5500 will be for the 2002 plan year? OR does the plan have "wasting trust" assets and Form 5500s will continue to be filed until the assets in the trust completely liquidated (i.e., until the checks are cashed)? Thanks!

Aside from other restrictions under state and federal law, if a medical provider sends PHI in error to an individual's employer, is the employer's use of such PHI subject to any restrictions under the HIPAA privacy regulations? If so, where is this addressed in the regs. or other DHHS authority?

HIPAA privacy regs. state that participant authorizations must state the specific purpose(s) for which disclosure is permitted. May an authorization state that the specific purpose is any reason desired by the covered entity? If not, where is this addressed in the regs. or other DHHS authorit? Thanks.

I have had this happen both yesterday and today:

A thread is listed with a new response(s) on the "posts since last visit" page. When I enter the thread, the new response(s) are not there.

For example, in the "ADEA and retiree LTD plan" thread right now, I can only see the original question, even though a reply is there.

Yesterday, it happened on my thread about JCWAA rates and Section 404. I was able to "force" seeing the replies by hitting the "reply" button, which then brought up all of the replies under the entry box. Then I just left without replying.

Dave,

Great job on the enhanced Federal Register link. Is it possible to do the same for the weekly IRS Bulletin?

JEVD

Help, please! Master Trust covering two plans, MP PYE is 9/30/02 and 401k PYE 12/31/02. There would be seperate audits for the two plans but do we also file two Master Trust 5500's by 4/30/03 and 7/31/03?

Our company is looking to limit employees traveling abroad or coming to the U.S. due to the SARS mystery illness. Has your company implemented any policy on this? If yes, is the travel limited to specific countries or does it apply to all travel? Are there circumstances where travel would be approved?

Does anyone where I can find the 1983 GAM on the internet?

If a defined benefit plan has a death benefit of PVAB, can the plan be amended to eliminate this benefit? Where might I find regs/advice on this issue?

Dave,

Every time I return to the Board I have to hit the refresh buttom to pull in any new messages since I was there the last time. Is there something I need to reset?

I have been on permanent disability from my job since 1996, but still have an ESOP account with my employer valued at about $65,000.00. Despite many attempts I have been unable to receive an early distribution since disability is not considered retirement per the Summary Plan.

Recently i found out that i could receive the quarterly dividend as a cash payment rather than have it reinvested. This seems to be a change in policy since i last inquired about receiving some funds back in 2001.

My question is: Was the company under obligation to inform me of this change? And is it possible that i could receive retroactive payments dating back the last couple of years due to their non-disclosure?

Whoever can advise me, let me thank you now for taking the time. It's much appreciated.

Is anyone aware of an IRC cite or other authority which would allow a 401(k) plan to make a distribution to an employee who transfers employment within a controlled group to a foreign affiliate (i.e., a related company outside the US)?

I understand that such a transfer is not technically a separation from service or a severance from employment, but I have seen plan documents which state that if an employee remains employed with the foreign affiliate for a period of time after the transfer (say, five years) under certain circumstances a distribution is permitted, but I can't verify this.

Thanks in advance.

Here's our scenario:

Company A leases all employees (including employee owners) from Leasing Company X. Leasing Company X is a not otherwise related to Company A and is engaged in numerous leasing arrangements other than with Company A. The agreement between Company A and Leasing Company X terminates and all leased employees become employees of Company A. All employees are given distribution options, including rollover/transfers to the newly established Company A 401(k) plan.

Is this a related rollover????

It does not appear to fall within the statute, however, something about it just looks like it should be.

Any advice or comments would be appreciated.

Thanks.