In merging 401(k) plans with different elibility requirements aren't you required to retain ('grandfather') the previously existing eligibility/partipation rights in the receiving plan?

EXAMPLE: Plan A has 21 and any eligibility, Plan B has any age & 3 mos of service, and Plan C (the target or successor plan has 21 & 1 eligiblity). Then where in the regs are you required to allow previously eligible participants under Plans A & B to contibute under Plan C before satifying both the 21 & 1 requirements of Plan C?f

I represent multiemployer health and welfare plans and have been searching for an answer to a question concerning §4317(a)(1)©:

In the case of a health plan that is a multiemployer

plan, …,any liability under the plan for employer

contributions and benefits arising under this paragraph

shall be allocated –

(i) by the plan in such manner as the plan

sponsor shall provide; or…

Does this language permit the plan to allocate liability to the participant. For example, instead of the plan absorbing the cost or the last employer being responsible, can liability be placed solely on the participant. If not, can the plan absorb the cost but require any bank or reserve hours to be used up first?

I am about to upgrade to 8.0. Are there any problems I should be aware of that any of you have seen after the upgrade?

Under the presumptive method we have been under the impression that you need to go back to 1980 and determine the change in UAL in each year. The "buckets" are then amortized and each employer is allocated a percentage of each year’s change.

The result of this calculation is that a w/drawal liability could be assessed against a w/drawing employer even if the plan had no UAL. (I recognize this would be very rare.) Therefore, if the plan was overfunded since inception, but is now underfunded, a w/drawing ER would still have 20 buckets of unamortized gains/losses and their ultimate w/drawl liability would be the sum of all of the buckets.

Recently we came accross these two opinion letters. They seem to say that if the UAL was always

I realize that these opinions were written in the early 80's, shortly after MPPAA was passed. Are these two opinion letters binding in any way? Have there been any court decisions related to this? How do others calculate the liability?

It has been 15 years since I have done a 5500 filing for a Welfare Plan. (only retirement plans).

Could someone tell me: when reporting total employees, total participants eligible and total employees participating on Schedule F (125 Cafeteria Plan) should this total correspond to the total active participants on the Form 5500. The numbers I have been given for the 5500 count, the Schedule F count and the count on each of the Schedule A's is different..

Hope I don't sound too stupid. Any insight would help.

Marybeth

From time to time this question has arisen, but I'm looking for current opinions. We are a TPA firm running Relius right now and primarily using the Nationwide platform.

We are investigating BenefitStreet and ExpertPlan and would like opinions regarding these two and suggestions on any others that are good.

Any help is appreciated.

It has been 15 years since I have done a 5500 filing for a Welfare Plan. (only retirement plans). Could someone tell me: when reporting total employees, total participants eligible and total employees participating on Schedule F (125 Cafeteria Plan) should this total correspond to the total active participants on the Form 5500. The numbers I have been given for the 5500 count, the Schedule F count and the count on each of the Schedule A's is different..

Hope I don't sound too stupid. Any insight would help.

Marybeth

Does it instill confidence that a commissioner of the FTC is named "Swindle"?

http://www.ftc.gov/bios/commissioners.htm

Whee!

This java applet starts from outer space and then magnifies each successive view by a power of 10.

http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/sc...csu/powersof10/

Does your current Military Leave of Absence policy provide for a paid Military Leave of Absence? If so, for what duration? Also, how do you determine the amount of payment provided (i.e. regular salary offset by military payments)?

If you do not provide paid Military Leave, is this something you are considering in the near future?

Please include the approximate number of employees in your organization and the industry type (i.e manufacturing, retail) of your organization.

Thank you for your assistance.

In 1992, the DOL published Final Regulations Regarding Participant Directed Individual Account Plans to advise fiduciaries on appropriate action to seek the protection of 404©. ( 57 Federal Register pg 46906, published on 10/13/1992.) This publication stated that particpants and beneficiaries when submitting investment instructions had the "opportunity to obtain written confirmation of such instructions."

Now if the participant makes investment elections through the internet, he or she gets a confirmation number and/or can print out the screen. In this instance, I think we're in compliance. If we wanted, we could also print a Relius Confirmation report and mail it.

But what if they send a written request to our office and we enter the instructions through the Census Screen, Allocation % tab? I've been told the Relius Confirmation report does not run when trades are entered in this fashion. (My partner runs the Relius system so I might not be using the correct terminology.)

Can someone volunteer how they handle this issue?

Thanks.

Perhaps I am not looking in the correct area for this information, but I have been unable to determine if the following would allow an employee to change elections.

I have an employee who is out on a FMLA leave, she has exhausted her FMLA and has been offered COBRA 1/31/03.

She is going to resume coverage under her spouses plan so she does not have to elect COBRA, but wishes to remain on his plan after she returns to work. FMLA requires an employer to reinstate an employee to coverage provided prior to the leave, but she no longer wants the coverage.

What is the Qualifying Event? Can she change elections mid-year based on the expiration of FMLA?

Thanks!

Are employers required to provide each participant in the plan a copy of the SAR? (i.e. paper copy for each person) Or can it be posted along with workplace posters? From what I read of the regulations, it appears that each person should receive their own paper copy (or it seems it can be done electronically as well now). My main issue is that I was told that it could be posted and I don't think that is right.... but I'm not sure. Also, is there anything requiring it be mailed? Or can it be handed out at the workplace?

Thanks in advance for your help- it is greatly appreciated!

Rachel Diederich

Any views of whether the new blackout period notice requirement applies to nonqualified top hat plans? Assume the plan is of a defined contribution model, permits daily "exchanges" of "investments" and but is limiting them temporarily due to recordkeeper changes. (Please, no comments about whether there is an economic benefit problem here.)

I don't believe the requirement does apply. Even though Title I, Part 1 of ERISA, doesn't have a blanket exclusion for top hat plans like Parts 2-4, the requirement (new ERISA section 101(i)) by its terms only applies to blackout periods involving "individual account plans" defined in ERISA section 3(34). An "individual account plan" is defined as a pension plan providing an individual account for each participant and benefits based solely on amounts contributed to the participant's account and income, etc. Even where the top hat plan follows a defined contribution model with benefits based on notional, bookkeeping accounts, it doesn't seem to fall in that definition. To be a top hat plan, the plan, by definition, is "unfunded" -- technically, don't see how benefits could be "based solely on contributions."

That being said, I'm not sure the policy reasons behind the black out period notice are any different for a nonqualified plan . . . unless you simply conclude that, like the other exclusions from ERISA coverage for top hat plans, the big boys can take of themselves on this issue.

Any opinions or guidance? To the question, "why not just send it, just in case?", I answer "because it will limit our flexibility in communication and timing of the transaction in question."

After 18 months of COBRA, does an ex-employee only have 63 days to seek individual insurance coverage for an insurance company to be obligated under HIPAA? As far as I understand, HIPAA guarantees that a person who has had 18 months of "credible continous coverage" through a group health plan (without a break of 63 or mores days) has a right to purchase insurance in the individual market (subject to other factors). If this is true, how is the individual notified that when his COBRA benefits are exhausted, he or she has 63 days to get individual insurance?

We have an internal auditor here and he is questioning if our loans are exceeding the 5 year maximum repayment limit. Here is an example of one of our loans he is questioning.

Participant requests loan 10/7/97, he receives check 10/21/97, his first payment is 11/2/98 and his final payment is 10/24/02. This exceeds the 5 year limit from 10/21/97 to 10/24/02.(These are not exact dates I just created to show the auditor questions)

Has anyone else ever had this problem. I tried to explain it was based upon payroll cycles and it just worked out this way. He did not miss any payments and they were all done by payroll deduction evrey two weeks. Do we need to adjust our loans to a 4 year 25 biweekly payment schedules?

Thank you.

A health plan must provide a Notice of Privacy Practices to all employees. Is the TPA also required to provide the TPA's privacy notice to the employees so essentially the employees are receiving 2 notices?

I understand that voluntary after-tax contributions to a DB plan that are not used to purchase permissive service credits are treated as employee contributions subject to the 415© DC plan limits. The 415(B) DB plan limits are not available. I'd appreciate it if someone would supply the cites (Code, regs, whatever) that say this is the treatment.

Thanks,

Ken Davis

Univ. of South Alabama

Anyone have a brief overview/link/explanation of some of the features of a cash balance plan.

Thanks in advance

Does anyone know whether GUST and/or EGTRRA amendments need to be made for terminated DC plans that still have plan assets due to the inability to locate missing plan participants? The plan has received a termination determination letter; however, it has not been able to distribute all of the plan assets b/c it has been unable to locate some of the plan participants. Thanks for any assistance you may be able to provide.