I would like to know if a ROTH IRA can purchase and own a Property. I have a ROTH and I want to invest in another property. I was told that the ROTH could do that for me. Is that true?

Last month I paid off the remaining balance on a $34,000 loan on my 401K. Pay off was $20,000. I did this because my plan only allows one loan at a time. This month I applied for a $49,000 loan. (I have $100,000 vested in the plan.) My TPA said I could only borrow $25,000 because of Section 72P of the IRS code. He says he must reduce my request by the amount that was owed on the previous loan one year ago which was $24,000. I do not read Section 72P this way as this rule "seems" to refer to outstanding loans. If I am right in believing I should be able to borrow $49,000, how do I convince him he is wrong?

Thank you

During the remedial amendment period may the plan administrator elect or not elect the top-paid group election for determining HCEs without specifying the election until adopting the GUST document.

My ex is retired receiving pension. His company will not send payment to me since no quadro was filed on my behalf before he retired. It was listed in my divorce order but attorney did not file anything. Went to court and judge gave order for my ex to pay me directly cash payment each month. Can anyone tell me if my ex can substract amount he pays me from gross income. give irs

my ss and address and then I claim it as ordinery income. Ex want s to take his taxes out at his tax rate before he pays me check. HE is in highest bracket so not much will be left to send if he does that. I need documentation of how this can be done without losing a big % of my share.

:confused:

Do employers who offer EAP plans need to make the EAP available to Cobra beneficiaries? Does it matter whether it is a phone line only plan vs. 3 session EAP?

I added the new 94 mortality rates to my apr spreadsheet and come up with these rates at 6%. They're monthly.

Age 55 157.7916

Age 60 144.9395

Age 65 130.3888

I don't have anything to check them against. Little help?

Chip Brown

At first glance, it appears that the 6621a2 underpayment rate is a floor rate of return to be used in determining the lost earnings amount under VFCP. However, the reg's state shortly after that that

... "For a participant-directed defined contribution plan, the lost earnings to be restored to the plan is the amount that each participant would have earned on the principal amount from the loss date to the recovery date. However, for administrative convenience, the lost earnings amount for a participant-directed defined contribution planmay be calculated using the rate of returnof the investment alternative that earned the highest rate of return among the designated broad range of investment alternativesavailable under the plan during the applicable period."

Based on the use of the term "lost earnings" it would seem that the 6621a2 underpayment rate is not the floor rate of return. Any suggestions?

Can someone suggest a source of boilerplate employee benefit surveys? I am interested in developing something to get a better handle on whether we are meeting our employee's needs (and whims) ... I plan on doing the project in-house.

Thanks!

A profit sharing/401(k) plan elects to meet the nondiscretionary safe harbor contribution rules.

Does the safe harbor contribution satisfy the requirement that the PS plan make regularly recurring contributions?

In other words, if the employer also elects the discretionary PS contribution feature, must that separate type of PS contribution also be regularly recurring?

Has anyone had experience with offering employees a payroll deduction progam for an IRA not sponsored by the company? What issues are there -such as who is the IRA sponsor, what licensing

issues are there,etc?:confused:

We have a relatively new Taft Hartley client who maintains a benefits bank which often produces large $ bank amounts that are not used up by age 65 .... Medicare has indicated tgat the plan not medicare is primary until the bank is used up ... this makes NOOOOOOOO sense to me ... does anyone have experience with this type of medicare ruling??

When rolling over ESOP distributions to an IRA, can a portion of the IRA be allocated to a Section 529 plan (NY) without any taxes and/or penalties being levied? If so, what basis is picked up for transfer to the 529 plan?

If a plan participant is on unpaid leave of absence at the beginning of a plan year, terminates employment during the plan year, and receives no compensation during the plan year, is the participant included or excluded in ADP testing?

The plan document says prior year will be used for ADP testing. Is it too late to elect/amend to use current year data for 2001 ADP testing?

I accompanied another employee on a presentation to a sole proprietorship. The proprietor asked about employer contributions, specifically, can she contribute more than 3% and must she contribute 3% for an employee if the employee only contributes 1%?

As you are aware the standard text says the employer is required to match employee contributions dollar for dollar up to 3%. To her, this implies that if the employee contributes less than 3% she only has to match the employee's contribution, not provide 3%. Additionally, she inferred she could contribute more than 3% if she wants to.

If 2 people are participants in the same qualified plan, and one is the 100% beneficiary of the other, can the participant's account balance simply be transferred to the beneficiary's account balance upon the death (on or after 1/1/2002) of the participant? If the beneficiary is the spouse, does the plan have to provide for accepting spousal rollovers in order to do the transfer? Can the amount be considered a trustee-to-trustee transfer, or would it have to be considered a rollover?

Our outside consultant is reviewing health & dental claims. Our carrier is setting up a link for them to be able to access data right from their website.

I know this will be a HIPAA concern soon; we are for the most part self insured.

Does anyone see a current problem with this?

Should the consultant sign a Confidentiality agreement? Should our carrier,rather than us, be concerned form their end since their website?

Would anyone have a sample Confidentiality agreement or Business Associates agreement

Thanks!

I would like to hear what different interpretations may be out there on when a particiapnt in a standardized plan accrues the benefit.

Option 1:

Day 1 because for participants that do not terminate during the year there is no hour requirement.

Option 2:

After they work 501 hours because if they were to have terminated they would have had to work 501 hours to get the benefit.

We are looking at whether a 12/31 plan year, standardized plan can currently amend its allocation formula to a CT design.

From the ERISA Outlines:

Page 3.227 paragraph 5 they said one interpretation the IRS had was NO benefit would accrue before a participant had 501 hours (or what ever number is in the plan) on a standardized plan. This was just one Key District office from 1998.

Thank you for any experiences or opintions you can offer. Any additional cites are apprecitated!

When I divorced I was granted 36 months of Cobra through my ex husbands employer, the State of Florida. I was then, and still am, disabled and on Social Security disabillity and therefore receive medicare A and B( under age 65). When I inquired into a conversion policy I was told I was not eligible because of medicare. They claim it is because it would duplicate benefits.

But actually it doesn't since I will no longer have the drug benefits

I desperately need. Shouldn't I be entitled to some policy? The alternatives in Florida leave a lot to be desire.

Thanks for this great resource!