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

An employer does not want to adopt the EGTRRA amendments. For 2002, they want to continue using a compensation limit of $170,000, the 15% deduction limit and still count elective deferrals as employer contributions for section 404 deduction limits. It is my understanding that all plan sponsors need to adopt the EGTRRA amendments. Can a plan sponsor continue to use the old rules (pre EGTRRA) for plan years starting in 2002?

If, through administrative error, an employee is not enrolled in the employer's 401(a)/414(h)(2) pension plan when eligibility has been met, who is responsible for making up the 414(h)(2) contribution? Can the employer force the employee to make-up the past 414(h)(2) contribution if the employee cannot afford to?

If an employee elected pre-tax deductions and was terminated, when rehired, is there a waiting period before he is then eligible for pre-tax deductions in the future? This relates to health insurance dedutions.

Just saw this morning in RIA Pension & Benefit Weekly:

As a result of the suspension of the 30-year bond, Treasury will no longer supply the Federal Reserve Board with an estimate of the 30-year constant maturity yield, which is used by defined benefit plans to figure funding needs and lump-sum distribution amounts, and is published in the H-15 Selected Interest Rates Release.

What's the next step here?

Can anyone provide or direct me to a listing or source that shows the largest or Top 50 etc employee benefits consulting firms?

Can anyone provide or direct me to a list or source that shows the largest or Top 50 etc employee benefits consulting firms?

Can anyone direct me to a listing or source that shows who are the largest or Top 50 etc employee benefits consultanting firms and their size or revenue?

Hi all, I'm single and have had my Roth for a while, and I'm below the single limit. If I get married and she makes enough to put us over the married limit even though each of us is below the single limit, does this mean we cannot keep this as our main retirement vehicle? Thanks for any replys.

Be aware that Relius is not properly handling statuatory exclusions on their general non-discrimination testing. I have alerted them and they are working on a fix. My guess is that it won't happen for a while. We noticed this at 7.0, but I believe it was also this way on 6.0 (chances are it has always been this way). Relius strictly looks at 18 months as its exclusion period and I do not know of any workaround.

Tim

Reference: CCh Pension Plan Guide paragraph 27,014 (ASPA Conference) question 28--Did the Service ever issue guidance on this and if so where?

I regularly encounter a group of doctors who "share" employees--all of whom work full-time. One common scenario is that each doctor separately W-2s the employees for the respective time the employee directly works for that doc. The other scenario is that one doc W-2s each employee for 100% of their comp and then the other docs reimburse that Employing doc for their respective cost of wages and benefits. This creates some issues over eligibility and testing when each of the docs have different plans (or when not all docs have a plan).

How are practitioners handling this? Is there a cost-effective way to access a multiple-employer plan?