An employee has asked us if the procedure to harvest stem cells would be reimburseable through his medical reimbursement account? The employee's wife is pregnant, and they are looking into the procedure as an option to use the cells if anything should be wrong with their child after it is born.

Does anyone have any information about stem cell procedures and how they apply back to reimbursement accounts? The subject matter is so new that we're having a hard time scaring up information on it.

Any information that can be provided will be greatly appreciated.

Can an employer through a premium only plan offer a voluntary individual life program on a pre-tax basis and if so, would the actual life benefit be taxable or would it be non-taxable?

Has anyone heard of "intermittent" disability whereby an employee can use his/her STD benefits over time? For example, our STD policy allows for 90 days - can an employee use one day a week until he/she reaches the 90 day mark rather than take the days concurrently?

Many professional corporations have difficulty passing the Key Emloyee concentration test. My firm fails the test annually. My question involves how you correct the failure.

Most TPAs recommend that you adjust §125 deferrals mid-year when you project a concentration test failure. The problem with this approach is that it is imprecise. For example, if non-key employee participation picks up substantially through new hires or changes in family status, you will likely "over-correct" key employee deferrals if you take action as soon as you project a testing failure.

An approach that makes a great deal of sense to me is to perform the concentration test at year-end. If you fail the test, then it is necessary to adjust key employee contributions. However, there are no contributions remaining in the Plan Year, so the only way to correct is to "recharacterize" contributions by key employees to the extent necessary to pass the concentration test. To recharacterize, you simply report the §125 contributions that are in excess of the concentration test as taxable compensation to the key employee and adjust FICA withholdings to the extent necessary in the key employee's last paycheck of the year. This approach has the same income tax effect as reducing contributions mid-year, but is much more exact.

I have spoken with several other benefits attorneys regarding this approach, and while we agree that it should be allowed, we can not find support for it in the §125 regs or statute and find that most TPAs resist it. Any thoughts?

A 401(k) plan sponsor currently has a loan policy with a minimum loan amount per request of $1,000. Is their anything to consider if the plan sponsor wants to increase that amount to $2,500 or $5,000?

Credit Union requests rollover to IRA of their 457 plan assets.

Aren't CU's non-governmental, and therefore not subject to EGTRRA?

If not subject to/covered by EGTRRA, they cannot rollover to IRA.

Unless I am mistaken, only governmental employers, who were previously subject to the Small Business Job Protection Act of 1996 (same employer informed us they were not subject to this act) have had their assets made portable under EGTRRA.

?

I'm looking for a copy of the complaint in the class action filed against Nationwide in Connecticut re mutual fund fees. Lead plaintiff is Flyte Tool & Die. Anyone have a copy?

I don't work with SEPs too often, but have been asked to look into a couple of things. I was looking in the Pension Answer Book and saw the following: "The trustee or issuer of the IRA is required to furnish annual information regarding contributions to the SEP and the fair market value of assets in the SEP. For this purpose, Form 5498 must be filed with IRS by May 31."

I thought the advantage of SEPs was that the employer didn't have an annual filing requirement. What is this 5498, and who files it? Would it be filed by the financial institution? Thanks in advance for any help.

I thought I read a post here that dealt with an individual who wanted to contribute to a TIRA and if the account REALLY appreciated to Recharacterize as a Roth. This would enable them to insure that only "winners" ended up in the Roth and that "losers" would stay in TIRA where you got a $2000 tax deduction. For example a $2000 TIRA contribution that had $2500 in earnings in 6 months would be Recharacterized as a Roth. That puts $4500 into the Roth on a $2000 contribution.

I think that this idea was shot down for a reason that I do not recall. I've tried the search feature but have had no luck.

Anyone recall it or know why this would not be permitted?

It is essentially the reverse of the normal reason why Roths are recharcterized.

Any thoughts on Notice 2002-2's requirement that under Q&A 10 that effectively says that a 401(k) plan cannot be amended retroactively to become an ESOP (at least for dividend purposes).

Is this a new requirement that overrides the remdial amendment rules?

Any thoughts?

Anyone heard when Congress may tackle the “technical corrections” that will make 457(B) deferral limits 100% of earnings instead of a 50% effective percentage (because, unlike the 401(k) and 403(B) 100% limits, the 457 limit is 100% of taxable earnings)?

I am looking for a good article that addresses the inappropriateness of using universal life contracts to fund 412(i) plans. I am trying to convince a 31 year old that he and his wife cannot deduct the $250,000 that his insurance agent and his accountant are telling him that he can. Any help would be appreciated.

When is the last day to establish an IRA in order to make a 2001 contribution?

Does anyone know if there are any IRS rules or publications of what can and cannot be held in an IRA? I.e. real estate, certain collectible coins, private placements etc..... :confused:

Okay - my search is getting frustrating. I'm looking for a link to the Q&A's - specfically #36, which discusses the Notice to Participants upon term when QJSA is a distribution option.

Specifically - is the notice required to calculate the QJSA payments or only required to provide the participant in simple language (HA) the formula and anuity tables used to calculate the benefit from their lump sum amount?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

I converted a Roth IRA in 1998 and spread the payments over 4 years. Now the value of the IRA has dropped about 50% (admittedly due to some poor investing on my part).

While I understand that this was a risk when converting, do I have any options to reduce my tax liability this year? Essentially I am paying taxes on a quarter of the original amount, which has been lost.

Any advice? Can I somehow recharacterize the IRA and bring down to my current value? Or, can I claim losses on the IRA to reduce my income?

I currently have 2 traditional IRA's that are in the same account with my local credit union. One I deducted and one I did not deduct. I'm planning to convert these to a Roth before the end of the year but I don't want to be liable for the taxes on the entire total, only the taxes on the deducted portion. How do I do this? Any help would be much appreciated.

I'm looking for some research on the amount of charge offs/write offs a TPA running daily valuation generates. We are trying to determine how we stand up when it comes to the errors we make and the costs associated with errors.

Any information remotely close to this topic would be appreciated.

Can a safe harbor 401(k) using the basic match use a definition of comepnsation that wouold exclude bonuses?

Plan terminated and distribution paperwork was prepared after 6/30/01 valuation report was prepared. Valuation reports are prepared quarterly. Executed distribution forms were returned from 90% of the participants to the plan administrator by 8/2001, however, the participants did not receive distributions until 11/2001, in which the distribution amounts were based on the 9/30/01 report. Participants are screaming due to lesser distribution amounts. Plan administrator wants TPA to rerun 9/30/01 report and show distributions as a liability but remaining 10% of participants would share in the loss for the third quarter (approximately 77% loss per participant if we show a liability for the third quarter). Are there any options available to the plan administrator to appease the participants that were paid out and the remaining participants?