Can someone over age 70 1/2 receiving his annual minimum required distributions from a standard IRA convert to a Roth IRA, and if so, under what circumstances, i.e. AGI? When would such a conversion (assuming it could be done) be advantageous?

Small Company - Owner and 7 employees, 2 of which are HCE.

Client already has a DB Plan. The two HCE's will enter the Plan in 2002, but due to thier ages, will be very expensive. Client would like to set up a separate Plan just for the HCE's.

I know that we can exclude the HCEs from the DB plan.

I think we can set up a PS Plan just for the HCE's with a 3% ER contribution. -- the NHCE's will be receiving the top-heavy minimum benefits under the DB Plan, and if we aggregate plans for testing, they will pass 401(a)(4).

Can the new PS plan include 401k deferrals for the 2 HCE's?

Thanks for any help.

To update an individually-designed plan for GUST, is it permissible to submit a PROPOSED amendment to the IRS by 2-28-02 and then, following IRS approval, to have the proposed amendment formally adopted by the plan sponsor?

An active employee age 67 has been disabled for 6 months. Under her plan she was considered active for the 1st 6 months of her disability, however, she has now exceeded her 6 months of being considered active under her health plan. The question is whether or not she eligible for COBRA since she is also eligible for Medicare? If she is eligible for COBRA, would she be eligible for 18 or 29 months?

We have upgraded to 7.0 (SP 2), standalone verison. On one of the stand alones Crystal Report Writer is dropping a digit from the year, 2001 prints 201. Does anyone know what causes this and how to correct it? Relius support has been pondering it for nearly a month and can't come up with anything.

I'd like to hear from people experienced in discretionary class plans and client communications regarding same.

I've worked mostly with cross tested plans with hard wired formulas and am trying to get a large block changed to discretionary class plans. One downside would seem to be that more back and forth might be required with clients before the desired allocations are finalized and tested.

How is this typically approached when there are multiple groups? Is it efficient to have written guidelines in terms of how relative contributions are determined, i.e. class two gets 1/2 of class 1 and class 3 gets 1/3 of class 1?

The context is not a small, local-only operation where regular client meetings are held. I'm talking about a wide geographical spread of clients.

What are people's experiences with how to make this process most efficient? All opinions are welcome.

A. Company has a MP and PS on a calendar year basis.

B. Company wants to merge the MP into the PS plan.

C. Company hasn't made the 2001 MP contribution yet.

D. Can the company put the MP contribution into the PS plan or

does it have to maintain the MP until the contribution is made

and then merge?

Is calendar year 2001 the deciding year for selecting the current or prior year testing or has that been extended to 2002?

Can an employer limit the compensation subject to a match; for example, match dollar for dollar up to 3% and $100,000 of compensation

A plan has 3 month eligibility for deferrals and 12 month for employer contribution. There has been a number of terminations during the 2001 plan year.

In counting the number of participants, in order to determine if there has been a partial termination, do I count only those that are participants in the employer portion of the plan (met 12 month eligibility)? Or, must I also count those that are eligible for deferrals, but not eligible for the employer portion of the plan?

Has anyone seen any guidance on the practice of taking an individual's personal brokerage account fees and his IRA account fees and charging the total of both fees to the IRA account? The idea is to decrease future taxable income from the traditional IRA by reducing net gain, since the fees charged to the personal account would be too little to deduct on a 1040 - miscellaneous deductions subject to the 2% floor. This doesn't pass the smell test, but I don't know if I can find specific guidance to prove it.

I believe EGTRRA permits certain payment options to be eliminated from plans that aren't required to have those options. But is that only true when plans are merging? I have a long standing profit sharing plan that has a joint and survivor option because somebody chose it in error several years ago. The ER's been stuck with it ever since. Can the ER elect to eliminate that payment option now? There's no merger or anything else going on -- he just wants to get rid of that option since it was never required in the first place.

A client previously established a Section 423 employee stock purchase plan. On January 17, 2001, the plan was amended to include an evergreen provision. The client's annual meeting was originally scheduled for sometime in November, 2001. Due to a number of factors, the meeting was not held until sometime after January 17, 2002. In other words, the client failed to secure shareholder approval within the 12-month period after the restated plan's adoption.

Other than issue hundreds of W-2s to employees who received discounted stock, is there anything the client can do? Thanks. Ed

Other tha

i worked for company A full time from june 1933 to july 1997. i had a balance in the company pension plan which had a 5 year cliff vesting schedule. the company merged with company B on september 30, 1999 and provided for 100% vesting to any active participants in the plan at that time. does that include me even though i was terminated? am i still an active partcipant if i have a balance ?

i appreciate any feedback....

Is anyone using 7.0? I'm interested in pros/cons, happy/horror stories.

Thanks!

Stacey

We're looking to inform plan participants of the benefits of using Mutual Funds (diversified) vs. individual stocks to help avoid the Enron situation - at least as much as can be controlled.

Has anyone seen a communication piece that can be purchased from a publisher - newkirk / communi-k - that targets the benefits of Mutual Funds?

PS - I've check both of the mentioned publishers with no positive results.

Thanks.

We have a small group of employees who live out of state who are enrolled in a POS and will only receive the out-of-network benefits since the plan is not in their area. We would like to reimburse employees for the deductible since they do not have the opportunity to use in-network providers. Is there a way to reimburse them without the reimbursement being taxed?

What reports must the trustee receive for assets held in self directed brokerage accounts. How much detail about the investments must be provided? I'm assuming it is all even though the Sch H reporting requirements have changed.

We have a client whose employees are part of a PEO. The PEO maintains a 401(k) plan and the employees participate in that plan. The owners of the company have their own 401(k) and a cross-tested plan (which covers all employees). The question we have been asked is can the owners have the PEO employees participate in the owners' 401(k) plan instead of the PEO 401(k) plan without severing the PEO relationship. If yes, the PEO employees would have access to a larger number of funds then currently offered by the PEO's plan. What issues do we need to be concerned with?

I think an amended 5500 orginally sent to the IRS is to be filed with the IRS, not the DOL, but when I stop and think about it I am not that certain! Can some one confirm what my "short term" memory can't seem to grasp?

Thanks

ED:confused: