An employee who was terminated for cause won reinstatement along with back pay for all of last year. The question: Can he contribute to 403b and have it count to last year when we pay him his back pay this year? And if he can, how do you report it on his W-2?

Is it legal to have several different Roth IRA's from different providers (started in different years)? Any big benefits to keeping them all together?

A partnership has a profit sharing plan. Each partner participant makes his own Keogh contribution. Each partner participant is free to find & use any broker and investments that he so chooses. The partnership makes a annual discretionary PSP contribution for the regular employee participants..... however, the regular employee participants are not allowed to choose where their share of the discretionary contribution will be invested (the partnership decides where to contribute the discretionary contribution).

Is this an ERISA violation? Can it disqualify the plan ?

Has anyone heard anything on GUST & EGTRRA restatements for DB plans? At ASPA the Service was adamant that apporval would be no later than 1/31/02, however I have not seen any anouncement. I quess we will now have have until at least 3/31/03 to restate DB plans, on prototypes and specimen documents( volume submitters).

Employer checked off (X) NONE on standardized adoption agreement for employer discretionary profit sharing contribution to their 401(k) plan, but then went ahead and made profit sharing contribs for two prior years anyway. What should they do now to correct, if anything. New restated doc is all set going foreword...

Top heavy K plan with discretionary contribution uses the match to satisfy top heavy minimum.

The match used for the top heavy minimum must be tested under 401 (a)(4). Exactly what does this mean?

I understand that the match used for 416 is not a match for 401(m) testing.

Clearly the match used for 416 would be subject to general testing in amounts.

Does it also mean that the match is not a match for benefit, rights, and features, in which case there would be different rates of match?

Can the §415© contribution limits be applied separately for an individual that participates in two unrelated defined contribution plans? For example, John Doe participates in Corp X's Profit Sharing Plan and Corp Y's 401(k) Plan. Corp X and Corp Y are unrelated entities. Assuming Mr. Doe's salary at Corp X is $50,000 and at Corp Y is $75,000 Y for 2002, can $40,000 be contributed to his account in Corp X's Profit Sharing Plan and another $40,000 be contributed to his account in Corp Y's 401(k) Plan for the 2002 plan year?

I have a partnership in which a partner left during the plan year. His profit and capital interests were distributed to the remaining partners. Also, at the same time, the entity changed from a "regular" partnership to an LLP.

According the plan document and IRC Section 708, the partnership has not terminated, thus the plan remains an on-going plan.

My question centers on the measurement of earned income for the plan year. For those partners that remain, I have two K-1's for 2001. One for the "old" partnership and one for the new LLP. Would earned income for the plan year simply be the earned income for each short period during the plan year added together? This seems too simple, but I cannot seem to find any guidance on this.

Question: DoD allows a service member to elect for a one time bonus of $30,000 vice more retirement in the choice of election between a High-3 or the REDUX /Bonus. ( See the OSD military compensation web site at http://militarypay.dtic.mil/actives/retire...ad/19_faqs.html )

How come the military spouse does not have to be consulted?

The retirement is ultimately affected by the service member's choice!

Thanks,

FX

Are fees paid to eg CIBA and other plan groups where plan investment managers meet to hear about the latest and greatest payable from plan assets or only by the plan sponsor?

If a plan has a plan year of 12/1/00 - 11/30/01 and fails the ADP test requirinig refunds to HCE's, would the amount of the deferrals end up on the employees 2000 or 2001 taxes? Deferrals commenced in April of 2001.

is a custodian/fiduciary of ERISA funds liable for adverse results to plan participants in a hostile takeover/proxy voting situation??

What is (or was) the deadline for amending governmental plans for OBRA '93 compensation (IRC 401(a)(17)) and UCA '92 (401(a)(31) direct rollovers)?

Are these two laws considered part of TRA '86?

Thanks.

ER sponsors 401(k) plan with discretionary matching contribution and uses prior year ADP/ACP testing. The plan docs are Volume Submitter. For 2000 calendar PYE it was no match. ER wants to match for 2001. It is my understanding that under PY testing ER can not match in 2002 if docs are VS ( it seems that for prototype docs there is a break until GUST restatement).

Is there any way ER can make matching contributions without violating thr regs? And if ERtakes advantage of the last extended reliance year and switch to current year testing....would ER have to "stick" w/CYtesting?

Thanks....AC

1. Still not clear about the effective date of GUST resatatement we have to specify in the Adoption Agreement and Corporate Rezolution. The Plan Docs incorporate dates by reference; does it matter then if we specify as effectivre date December 97 or January 01, 2001?

2. The IRS does not allows "fail-safe" provisions in "GUSTified" Volme Submitter plan docs (am I right?).

My question: if I restate plans that used fail safe provisions in the past to pass 410(B)- bringing back and giving allocation to participants with less than 1000hrs or not employed in the last day;Is the plan in non compliance by retroactivelly adopting a plan doc that does not have fail safe language?

And even if I use GUST effective date as January 01, 2001...Istill have plans that used fail safe provisions to pass 410(B) in 2001.

Thanks for your input to these two questions.

I did a search on this but only came up with traditional ira's. ok, if one dies with a roth, and leaves it to a child and a grandchild. 50% to each. the child is 40 and the grandchild is 12. Am i correct that each would take distributions over their life expectancy? If they took out more than that, wouldn't it be a taxable event?

thanks

Dumb question....I hear all these great and wonderful things about Roth IRA's, read articles on them, my only question is.....Where do you get one????? A bank, investment firm, I have no idea....:confused: :confused:

Some companies allow purchase of their stock directly in a Roth IRA at no cost.

I am familiar with Atmos Energy and Philadelphia Suburban, an H2O company.

I'm looking for other possibilities. Can you name any other companies and share them with the board? Thanks.

I checked several oil companies and they do have IRAs, but most charge $10-20 per year handling charges.

Those "small" charges add up over time if you have several.

a cash balance plan provides in its definition of ab, that the ab be based on the cash balance at determination, divided by 200 and payable as an escalating annuity (i.e. built in cost of living adjustment)

the above seems to violate 96-8, in that it appears to be a backloaded cash balance plan (i.e. no automatic interest credits to age 65).

the ab also says that the age 65 benefit is based on the cash balance at current date projected to age 65, divided by 200 and payable as an escalating annuity.

so there seems to be a contradiction here. in one sentence they imply that the ab is the current balance divided by 200 and payable at age 65 (but do not explicitly say this, but their participant benefit calcs support this). and in the next sentence it seems clear that it is saying that the balance is projected with interest to age 65 then divided by 200 (which would be consistent with 96-8).

i see the above definition of ab as meaning that a COLA is part of the ab and when determining a lump sum it s/b part of the ab and included.

the plan also says that the normal form is a 5 year c&c.

the plan also says that as an optional form of payment the participant can convert the 5 yr c&c to an escalating annuity, thus implying here that the benefit is not automatically paid as an escalating annuity. or at least that the ab does not include the cola. what they do on their benefit calc is to use current balance divide by 200 (with no increse for interest) and say that s/b paid as a escalating annuity.

there seems to be inconsistent language.

it appears that a lump sum s/b the pvab where it is based on a 5 yr c&c with a automatic cola.

any comments?

a plan had a formula where it originally computed the ab based on 1.5% of avg pay per year offset by 2/3 soc sec ben ("ssb").

this large offset was apparently violating 411(B) accruel rules.

so they decided to remedy the situation by using a project and prorate ab.

this railroad plan provides that if participant has over 30 years at ret. the front end and the offset would have no reduction for early commencement.

my question is as follows:

a person left with 6 years of svc. the person had over 30 years of projected service when computing the projected benefit. the plan is proposing that when computing the early retirement benefit that there be no reduction to the front end or the offset. my feeling is that when the person retires at say age 62, the early ret factor would be based on the fact that the person had only six years of service not based on the fact that under the project and prorate the person was projected to have over 30 years. as it turns out by having a early ret reduction results in a higher early ret benefit, since the front end was already heavily subsidized, but the offset had previously been reduced.

any thoughts?