We have two greater than 5% owners who up until 2002 received W-2 income. In 2002 they maintain their ownership, have offices, serve on the Board of Directors, and are still involved in decision making but have not received any W-2 income in 2002. They are getting paid a retirement package set up by an attorney which is not reportable on W-2. Under common law rules, could we consider them employees and thus include as HCE's in nondiscrimination testing? We could pay them a few bucks on the W-2 if necessary, and if so, is there a minimum amount that should be adhered to?

Has anyone else heard that the GUST restatement deadline for prototypes may be extended one more time? If you know anything about this, what have you heard?

I am looking for a basic "software module" to administer Participant Loans. Before I created this thread I searched the Boards and didn't find an answer. The best responses were, "Your admin software should do this-it doesn't!, and one poster offered to share his excel macro document-I'd love to try it!

I can't believe some software company hasn't created a simple program module/add-on product. There seems to be a good demand for it. I even asked at an ASPA seminar last month with 300 hundred people in the room and no answer! Any help? Thanks.

If an employer, who already sponsors an FSA Plan, wishes to contribute a set dollar amount to each employees Health Care Reimbursement Account, can this be based on single and family coverage? For example, can the employer contribute a higher dollar limit to an employee who elects family vs single coverage.

Also, does the employer amount count against the Health Care FSA dollar limit?

Thanks, Joe

What information is required to be in a vested rights letter? i.e. is only the accrued benefit at age 65 required? Or, if the participant is married, is information regarding death benefits required?

What is required for an employer with a 2002 Simple-IRA to terminate the plan in order to establish another type of qualified plan effective 1-1-03?

I am 26 years old and have admittedly in the past been very bad with my finances. I have no savings except for my 401K plan. I recently changed my 4% contribution to 7% with plans to increase to 10% in a few months. Currently, I make $35,000/year (but am waiting to hear about a raise - cross your fingers!)

In the next 5 - 7 years I plan to get married and would like to also purchase a home around that time. With no savings this looks pretty dismal.

After reading some financial planning books I decided to open a Roth IRA, both for retirement purposes and with the plan to withdraw money for money down on my first home. I understand that this is a qualified distribution and I may take out up to $10K for purchase of my first home. Are there any other restrictions I should be aware of? Is this a wise vehicle for my goal of purchasing a home? I plan to contribute $100 a month. Is it true I can avoid fees by making monthly contributions in lieu of one lump investment?

Also, to pay for the wedding, I was thinking to open either a mutual fund or a money market account.

Since I only have 5-7 years to grow the accounts, I need them to grow as aggresively as possible, all while protecting my original investments. The idea of a 1% return on a passbook savings account makes my stomach turn.

I am looking for some affirmation that I am doing the right thing and once I open these accounts, how should I direct the investment of my funds?

In my circumstances, should I go to a bank, brokerage, or mutual fund? How can I find a financial planner who will be willing to work with me and my limited assests?

I believe this is a simple question. The plan I'm working on has 401(k) and 3% Safe Harbor Employer contributions.

When determining the discretionary contribution amount to allocate, do I include the sum of the above contributions along with the Discretionary Contribution in the amount that is normalized?

Has the Covered Compensation Table for Year 2003 been published yet? If so, where can I find it? If not, when is it likely to be published?

Thanks.

Assuming severanced employees are allowed to participate in our Health Care FSA program, are the following allowed:

1. Pro-rated annual maximums --different from the annual maximums for active employees?

OR

2. Different annual maximums for severanced employees? (i.e. actives can elect $5000, but severanced employees can only elect $1000)

Thanks in advance!

Have the rules recently changed regarding an employer's right to recoup any reimbursements that exceed deposits at the time of an employee's termination?

I was under the impression that they have changed and now allow a way for employers to recoup "losses".

Any help will be appreciated...

I'm trying to format a phone number with parenthesis and dashes.

Below is the code I was using.

{EMPLOYER.PHONEADDR} [1 to 3] + "-" + {EMPLOYER.PHONEADDR} [4 to 6] + "-" + {EMPLOYER.PHONEADDR} [7 to 10]

When I check it, I get a message "A statement is expected here" with the cursor placed at the beginning of the code.

What am I doing wrong?

First, let me warn you all. I'm brand new to the Pension industry, Relius, and Crystal Reports.

Now that I've frightened you all away, I'll explain what I'm trying to do.

I'm trying to create a custom report that will produce a sheet for each Plan Sponsor. Listing, Co Name, Plan Name, Address, Contact info and some plan specifics (ie., year end date, whether or not Loans are allowed, what the Safe Harbor % is, Broker info, Vesting schedule, etc.)

My question is:

Other than Employer, Broker, RPTPlan, what tables would you recommend I use?

Is there already something in Relius that does this that I can modify?

TIA

Heather (the newbie)

Client maintained a SAR-SEP into which they were making a discretionary employer integrated profit sharing contribution after the end of the plan year. They "terminated" the SAR-SEP in August, 2002. Is employer permitted to fund a discretionary profit sharing contribution even though the plan is terminated. If so, would you count compensation from January to August...or for the whole year to determine amount of contribution?

Same client adopted a Safe Harbor 401(k) in September, 2002. This plan also contains a discretionary integrated profit sharing contribution.

HCE #1 wants to get $40,000 into his account during 2002. I guess my bottom line question is how do we get there with the scenario listed above. Or do we just forget about the SAR-SEP and only fund the new 401k plan?

Sorry if this question is not clear....I've just confused myself!

Must an employee's deferrals to a 401k plan cease when his compensation for the year has reached $200,000?

We have an employee who makes well over $200,000 that just started to make contributions last month. However, his deductions were recently cut off because his comp for the year reached $200,000.

Can forfeitures from a governmental money purchase pension plan be used to pay administrative expenses of the plan?

The plan document specifies that forfeitures are applied to the Employer Contribution. It is an annually allocated, balance-forward plan. Administrative fees are automatically deducted from the fund monthly. The employer typically reimburses the plan's admininistrative fees after the end of the plan year (when the allocation is completed). But if there are forfeitures, they are first applied towards the expenses that need reimbursed, then towards the employer contribution for the next plan year. Is that allowable?

I have a question regarding employee contribution to their health care plan.

We have an employee who recently notified us that his dependent son (age 19) did not return to school and should no longer be covered under our self-funded insurance. This "qualifying event" took place in August, but we were notified in late October, over a month past the 30-day period surrounding benefit changes due to a "qualifying event."

Our department has since taken the employee's dependent off of the insurance, but informed the employee that his contribution level will not change since it was past the 30-day mark; and that he would have to wait for open enrollment to drop the "employee + one" coverage down to "employee only."

My question: Did our department do the right thing? Is there any law that was severed by negating the employee's coverage but still making him pay for it? Does the employee have any right to action against this?

Common sense would beg the question, "If the employee is still paying for coverage, why isn't he getting it?" Or "If the employee was past the 30-day event time, why did you take the dependent off in the first place?"

Any help or input would be appreciated.

Thank you.

What if you elect a safe habor 4% match 30 days before the beginning of the year but you give participants notice of a 3% PS election by mistake. Then a month after the plan year starts you give another notice saying the 3% notice was a mistake it is really 4%. Does that invalidate the 4% election? Or can the mistake be corrected even though it wasn't timely?

Looking for some legal advice in Florida. After working 2 weeks of my 6 weeks resignation notice I was told I did not need to come back to work. Is the company required to pay me through the full 6 weeks notice?

I am interested in finding out if there is any web site or magazine/periodical that rates 403b/401k plans. I work for a non profit in California and we are looking at various 403b plans and 1 401K -- the providers we are looking at are as follows--

403(B)s

ING Northern Annuity

Lincoln Financial Plan

Metlife Resources Plan

TIAA-CREF Retirement Plan

401K

ABA Member Retirement Plan

Thank you.