My question concerns how forfeitures can be allocated from a Safe Harbor 401(k) Plan that was Profit Sharing Plan until it became amended in June of 2000. The Plan no longer has a Profit-Sharing feature, so no new contributions have been made to this plan. A participant that was not fully vested in the Profit Sharing plan terminated and I am concerned how to allocate dollars left in the plan. The language in the document with regard to forfeitures states that "forfeitures are allocated as a discretionary matching contribution for the Plan Year in which the forfeiture occurs." Does this language address the Profit Sharing forfeiture, and who should be eligible to recieve the forfeiture? Participants with only a Profit Sharing balance or all eligible participants? Thanks for any help you can give me.

Does family aggregation place any restricitions on a SAR SEP?

Here is the situation...

Father owns a business. His son works for the business and is also self employed. Son participates in the business P/S plan and wants to also start a SAR SEP.

Are there any problems in doing this? Thanks in advance for your help.

JimJ

Note: Question changed to "opening a SEP" rather than a SARSEP. Age of child still unknown. --GSL

I belong to an ESOP and have asked several questions to management about accountability. Does the business have any legal obligation to report on business activities to ESOP members (i.e.,stockholders)? In light of the ENRON fiasco, I feel that the response of "information is given on a need-to-know" basis is not only offensive, but perhaps even illegal. Any comments or ideas?

Thanks!

Does anyone know of any restrictions on 401(k) plans that cover only collectively-bargained employees from adopting a new comparability profit sharing formula?

Our prototype program has operated on basically the same plan document since ERISA. It needed to be amended/restated for GUST. Outside counsel was hired (a member of the Board is a partner in the firm), and we were promised a plan that would be 110% better than before.

We got the IRS-approved result in late December. The new plan is chock-full of egregious errors, 411(d)(6) violations, internal inconsistencies, misspellings, typos, etc. How this happened is a long story, but we who must service and administer the program must work with the results. We have prepared a list of must-resolve issues to transmit to the law firm that was responsible for this botch, but what none of us knows is this:

Are technical corrections amendments possible in an M&P plan that has received its IRS opinion letters? Is there a deadline? (We have not contacted our clients yet about GUST requalification, and the opinion letters were issued 11/30/01, so time is of the essence.)

Thanks!

In a defined benefit plan that allows lump-sum distributions, would it be permissible for a participant to elect to receive their benefit partially as a lump sum and the remaining amount in the form of a life annuity from the plan? If it is permissible, would the plan need to be amended to allow for this hybird form of benefit?

An individual terminates employment and rolls dollars out of employer's plan, that includes both pre and post tax money, into an IRA. This individual then takes a new job and rolls just the pre-tax dollars into the new employer's plan. Leaving just an IRA with after tax money in it. Can this be converted into a Roth without any taxable income (assuming it has not changed in value) (and he is otherwise eligible for a conversion)?

Would it matter whether or not the new employer's plan accepted post tax contributions? (I think this has to be trustee to trustee.)

Thank you.

Under what circumstances may someone participating in a cafeteria plan make a mid-year election change with respect to their dependent care account?

Change in Family Status

-marriage or divorce

-death of employee's spouse or dependent

-birth or adopton of a child

-termination or commencement of employment of the employee's spouse

-switching from part-time to full-time status or vice versa

Change in Cost

Am I missing anything? What about taking leave of absence?

Any further guidance would be greatly appreciated!! Thank you.

Two people originated the SMarT (Save More Tomorrow) concept a couple of years ago. I belive one of them was Schlomo Bernarzi (sp?). The gist was that employees enter into an agreement with their plan sponsor whereby they elect to automatically increase their 401(k) salary deferral by a pre-determined amount with each future raise they receive.

Has anyone implemented this program? What were the results?

When terminating a money purchase plan, will previously TERMINATED employees who have not had their vested portions distributed become fully vested in a terminated plan, even though they are already terminated? Or since they are terminated, is their non-vested portion already forfeited and allocated among remaining active participants as of the last day of the plan year during which they terminated (assuming forfeitures can be used to offset future contributions in the plan document).

Thanks.

I am in the process of updating a prior standardized prototype (Profit Sharing Plan) for GUST. Under the prior standardized prototype, the contribution was allocated to those participants who completed 500 hours of service during the plan year, or who were employed on the last day of the plan year.

Client would like to institute the 1000 hours/last day rule going forward (switching to a non-standarized prototype). Is this permissible? I have researched everywhere, and can't find any guidance. Thanks for any help.

Some pension plan participants have requested a copy of Form 5500. The Schedule SSA has information specific to certain individuals, including their Social Security numbers. Must we include the SSA as part of what we furnish to them, and if not, do we have any basis for that position other than common sense?

Let's say an employee received wages of about $80,000 last year, but also received about $15,000 in restricted stock. Let also assume that the employee deferred the stock until this year under a non-qualified plan. Basically, my question is would this employee be an HCE for this year or not? Let's further assume that no of the other rules such as 5% owner apply.

Nothing I've read is clear on this issue.

Partners of a partnership are being paid as leased employees with a leasing organization. Can they do this? If not, is it corrected simply by pulling the partners out of the leasing org?

I need some assistance.

Are prototype plans required to include trust agreement provisions?

Any help would be appreciated.

Present IRA consists of many years of deductible contributions and nondeductible contributions, all in one comingled account. 1998, 1999 and 2000 tax returns were filed reporting nondeductible IRA contributions on 8606. Turns out it would have been better to have had these funds to go into Roth. Can those returns be amended (or just amended 8606) to remove the basis in IRA? Then contact custodian to transfer the $6,000, plus earnings to Roth and avoid treatment as a partial conversion in the year 2002?

Thank you

Could a minor be permitted to participate in a 401(k) plan?

Hi all, Just a quick question. If I were to say have 2 accounts, a Roth IRA and a 401k. Is there a maximum limit I can contribute overall or are they treated as 2 accounts? Where I could contribute 2k max to the Roth and say Max Percent to my 401k.

Any and all help appriciated. I've also heard that I could run into tax issues later on, but I'm sorta confused on what issues those could be.

I had a traditional IRA at the beginning of last year (2001). I converted half of the money in it to a Roth IRA in May 2001, and converted the other half to a Roth IRA in Sept 2001. Is this allowed? Is there any restriction on how many conversions can be done during the same year? [None of this involves recharacterizations.]

Thanks.

I have been assigned the task of investigating what state privacy laws are out there that may be more liberal than HIPAA privacy requirements.

I am aware that the state of CA has passed a bill on privacy. What other states have done so? Can anyone recommend a good referral source for this info?

We are self insured and have employees in all 50 states.

Much thanks