I have a retired employee that qualifies for lifetime medical (at no cost, the same as an active employee) for himself and one eligible dependent. If the retiree would like to keep an additional dependent under his retiree plan he may do so by paying a small monthly premium. This particular retiree has elected to keep the spouse covered and to drop his dependent child. For the child is this an 18-month or 36-month qualifying event? I believe it to be an 18-month event. Also would the premium charged be the small monthly fee that the retiree would be allowed to pay for an additional dependent, or our normal composite rate charged for COBRA? Note: We are a self-insured plan.

Is it possible to create a 412i Plan cross tested with a Profit sharing plan for a small group of employees?

Has anyone had experience administering Fully Insured Plans under 412i ?

We have a K-12 school client that includes housing allowances in their definition of compensation for the school contribution. I s this common? Have you had any problems with this?

OK. We have the owner of an IRA who opens the account and designates no beneficiary. The form says that if no beneficiary is designated, it passes to the surviving spouse, or, if none, to the estate. He is unmarried. He later marries and dies without designating a beneficiary. Does it pass to the spouse or the estate?

It seems to me that since there are no spousal survivorship rights to an IRA, you would look to state law. It is not community property. Would not this be a matter of a contract under which the custodian agreed, at the time the account was opened, to pay it to the estate, which could only be altered by a subsequent designation of another bene?

I am looking for a PPO that has good coverage in West Virginia and Ohio.

Thanks for your help!

We recently sold a division of our company in June. Under the terms of a collaboration agreement, employees from that division maintain the same benefits, costs etc. through the end of the year (all of our insurance carriers were appraised of this and agreed to treat them as affiliates).

The management of the division that was sold plans to offer a comprehensive H & W plan to employees beginning Jan. 1, 2002. In a case such as this, is it required that we offer COBRA on Jan 1, 2002 to the individuals in the division that was sold? If not, why?

My client wants to use a QNEC. Do you need to withold for FICA for a QNEC -- I think the answer is no because the FICA regulations include only wages which are excluded from gross income by reason of Section 402(e)(3) which requires that the employee have an election to either receive cash or defer the amounts and QNECs are non-elective. However, 401(k) regulations require that an employer treat QNECs as elective deferrals for other reasons.

Does anyone have definitive answer on this?

Thanks.

Employer has an existing integrated profit sharing plan that is top heavy for calendar 2000. A non-integrated ESOP plan is added for 2000. The 2 only key employees benefit under both plans making both plans a required aggregation group and entitling all participants to a top-heavy allocation for 2000.

The plans have different eligibility requirements allowing 3 employees who are not eligible for the profit sharing plan to be eligible for the ESOP. The ESOP's first year contribution was only $1,000 while approximately 4% of comp. was contributed to the profit sharing for 2000. Everyone will receive at least 3% of comp. in the PSP.

The $1,000 ESOP contribution is less than 3% of comp. for the 3 ESOP participants who are not eligible for the PSP. Would it be acceptable to allocate the $1,000 entirely among these 3 employees since the other ESOP participants are receiving a top-heavy minimum allocation under the PSP?

Also, since these 3 employees would be receiving less than 3% of pay in the ESOP, should a portion of the PSP contribution be allocated to them for the difference, i.e., allow them to prematurely participate in the PSP so they can get 3% of pay between the two plans?

All help will be very much appreciated.

My boss is thinking about starting to pay a premium to our employees who speak Spanish...We have a high percentage of spanish-speaking customers.

Does anyone do that? How do you administer? How do you qualify? How much do you pay???

HELP!?!?!?!?!?!

Under recent legislation, immediate eligibility for salary reduction contributions was enacted with limited exclusions. One of the exlusions is for part-time employees (i.e. 20 hours per week employees). What happens when a full-time (40 hour per week) employee changes status, for example on-call status? Are they now excluded from making salary reduction contributions?

For Universal Life Insurance products, when an Ownership change is process, we currently only tax non-natural owner changes.

Need to know if we should be taxing more than non-natural owner changes? Individual to Individual? Individual to another type of entity? Entity to Entity?

If you have a URL to refer to that would be great.

How do you handle a situation where a large employer (over 100 participants) came out of a multiple-employer plan (PayChex) in 2000 and transferred existing assets to their own trust. Client insisted they utilize their existing plan document with PayChex. Reviewing the document, I couldn't see why they couldn't use it. Plan name was the ABC 401(k), not PayChex 401(k). Then the issue arises on how to handle the 5500 reporting. In 1999, Paychex filed the 5500 and Schedule H based upon ALL participating employers. Only a Schedule T was filed on behalf of my client (as well as all other participating employers of course). So when I prepare Schedule H for my client for 2000, do I show beginning balances even though the assets at that time were in a separate trust inside the multiple-employer plan? Or do I show beginning balances as zero and a transfer of assets from another plan? Does the answer to this question depend upon the document issue above? :confused:

Can premiums for individual health insurance policies be run pretax through a Section 125 plan if the employer doesn't offer group health insurance? If so, what information is required in the plan documentation and SPD?

If a company has an employee who becomes ineligible to participate in a Flexible Spending Account mid plan year (based on S-Corp ownership status), does uniform coverage apply to expenses incurred prior to them becoming ineligible?

Would like to know how Medicare Entitlement length of coverage currently works when it's a secondary event.

Was told years ago that as a secondary event it would ADD 36 months to the date of the secondary event vs. where most secondary events (divorce, death) extend the 36 months from the date of the initial event. Hence, with Med. Entit. there could be a situation where a Cobra Beneficiary could receive 54 months of Cobra coverage if the Medicare Entitlement occured in the final month of coverage from the initial event. (18 months + 36 months)

Now, from what all I've read, it seems like the maximum time for coverage for ANY event (initial or secondary) combined can not be greater than 36 months. Is this correct?

Did the original method change (and when) or was I told incorrectly?

Thanks!!

Can a governmental entity who also has a 501©(3) exemption establish a 401(k) plan?

I have a client who is terminating the company SEP on 12/31 and starting a SIMPLE IRA 1/1/02. Can the existing SEP account money be rolled into the SIMPLE IRA account for each employee? Thanks in advance....

I initiated my Roth account with Morgan Stanley last year. I would like to transfer administration to Sharebuilder so that I can invest monthly incremently at a reasonable price. Is there any penalty or prohibition in changing administrators? Is there any additional information I should know about such a transfer?

Does anyone know of an easy access link to the Proposed Regs. 1.125-1 and 1.125-2 ?