Did EGTRRA address whether a distribution from a grandfathered 457 plan maintained by a credit union would be eligible for a rollover to an IRA in 2002 ? If EGTRRA did not address this any thoughts ????

A question was raised regarding mandatory employee education for 401(k) plans. The information I received is that there is a 2 hour per year requirement, found under Code 791. I have not been successful in locating any code regarding mandatory employee education. Has anyone heard of such a requirement?

Help!! I'm sorry, but I am not in my office and do not have access to any of my research materials. I have a participant in a 401(k) PS Plan who wants a distribution of only $3500.00. Her account balance is much greater than this. She is NRA. Her account, however, consists of after tax contributions with related earnings as well as 401(k) contributions and related earnings. HOw do I allocate the $3500 distribution among taxable and nontaxable amounts?

Software company.

Owners left the country, abandoning the business and 401K

They left no Successor Trustee

Pension Administrator is not helpful because there is no one to bill for the fees.

DOL is slow to help

I need to be named as Successor Trustee as quickly as possible. Is the DOL the only body that can help? Can 100% of plan participants vote to take an action?

Thank you for your help. R. Blair, Sacramento

We have an over 65 employee who voluntarily canceled our group health care coverage during annual enrollment in 1998 to go on a personal Medicare HMO risk plan. The HMO is pulling out of the Medicare business in the county where she lives 1/1/02. She has asked to enroll due to a loss of other coverage. We have incorporated the Section 125 events into our plan to allow enrollments mid-year. However, Section 125 states loss of other GROUP healthcare coverage as the event, not loss of personal coverage. I'm aware that HIPAA also states that there is a special enrollment period for someone who declines enrollment due to other coverage (including personal coverage, I presume). Any suggestions or advice on whether this is permitted, and what do you base it on?

If I have made non-deductible contributions to a regular IRA, are they eligible for conversion to a Roth? If so, any complications?

My company (Company A) purchased another company (Company b) effectively 1/18/00. This was an asset purchase. Company B's plan was terminated as of that date. The participants could immediately rollover their account balances into the Company A plan.

The acquired participants could also enroll at the next enrollment period which was 4/1/00. Some participants terminated between 1/18/00 and 4/1.....of these, some were HCEs. Should those terminated participants be part of Company A's ADP/ACP test?

Technically, they were employees of Company A, but left employment prior to enrolling.

This is specifically important in determining if some terminated HCEs of Company B should be included in Company A's test. Any advice would be much appreciated. I've been told this is a "gray area of the law". Thank you in advance.

Can a 457(f) deferred compensation plan condition reciept of plan benefits upon a participant's agreement to render consulting services to the employer, after benefits have vested?

If the participant refuses to do so, can the plan call for "forfeiture" of already vested benefits?

This doesn't sound right to me.

A plan requires that the act equiv mortality table be the 1971 GAM for males projected to 1978 using scale E.

I applied the scale incorporated in my spreadsheet program and it resulted in a small change in the q's, relatively, and a small change in for eg. the age 65 annuity. I don't recall exactly, but I believe the impact on the age 65 annuity was maybe 1% or so.

My questions are:

1. Does it make sense that the impact would be this small?

2. Does anyone have a copy of the scale E and know where it originated?

Perhaps it wasn't applied correctly. My feeling is that applying a mortality projection scale requires the factor (less than one) to be multiplied by the nth power, where n is the number of years projected out. i.e. in my case it would be 7 (1971 to 1978). Finally this factor is applied to the q's resulting in lower q's, thus higher annuity factors.

Any comments?

Calendar year MPP, client does not want to fund the 10% formula contribution in 2001. Since it's past the date when full-time ees have worked 1,000 hours (non-std plan with 1,000 hour and last day provisions), I don't think he can amend the plan to reduce (or change to 0%) the formula. Is there some way to do this that I may have missed? If not, has anyone ever gone the IRS waiver route, and was it successful?

Thanks. Tom

Can anyone help me to identify an appropriate training course/seminar for staff who need to learn the basics of 401k plan administration. I'm speaking of a primer that literally will start with the ABC's on up. Thanks.

We are winding down the assets of a plan that was terminated several years ago (we have missing participants). Does the plan still need to be amended for GUST?

Sarah Richards

Is it necessary to have participants make positive elections as to whether they will make catch up contributions and to specify the dollar amount?

For a new 401(k) plan in 2001 (1/1/01 to 12/31/01 plan year) which key employee definition do you use to determine the top-heavy status of the plan for the 2001 plan year? It is my understanding that the new definition of key employee under EGTRRA can be used to determine if the plan is top-heavy for the 2002 plan year. Can this new definition also be used for a 1st year plan to determine the top-heavy status for 2001 or will 2 top-heavy determinations have to be done for the 1st year 2001 plan?

Any guidance will be appreciated.

Thank you.

An employer has designed and launched its own private mutual fund which they want to offer as an investment option to its participants of its 401(k) plan. If the employer complies with Section 404© and offers other investment options, are there any restrictions on them including this investment in their 401(k) Plan?

Are you having catch up eligible participants make an election (enroll) for the opportunity to make catch up contributions? Or are you merely letting participants know that the plan allows for catch up contributions and under what circumstances they will become catch up contributions? We're unsure how to handle, especially the plan basis deferral % limit. Let's say the limit is 10%. Can a catch up eligible participant who makes $100,000 then elect a deferral of 11%? This would result in $10,000 in regular deferrals subject to the ADP test and $1,000 in catch up contributions outside of the ADP test. Or does the catch up eligible participant need to make a separate election beyond the 10% and elect a 1% (or $1,000) catch up contribution?

I am looking to see what other companies do above and beyond their basic benefits. Such as Flex Time and Education Reimbursement.

It seems to me that safe harbor contributions should be made on gross comp., but perhaps not. Can anyone give me a definitive answer?

Will a conversion to a Roth satisfy an RMD for the year of conversion? I'm sure this has been answered before and the answer is probably no. However, the logic is not clear to me. If the IRA owner is pulling funds out of an IRA and paying taxes while converting, that would seem to accomplish the IRS / Congressional goal of forcing the payment of taxes. It seems an administrative hassle to first take a small part of the IRA as a regular distribution before converting the whole thing. Am I wrong in my thinking?

A client just asked me whether the fee that a TPA charges a client to amend and restate a document for GUST can be paid from plan assets. He also asked the same question regarding the preparation of the EGTRRA good-faith amendment.

Can clients pay the TPA's fees from plan assets, assuming the plan document permits expenses to be paid from the trust?

(Assume the client is using a prototype, so IRS fees are not an issue.)