What legal requirements are there regarding the confidentiality of the benefits payable under a qualified retirement plan?

I cannot find anything in the plan document.

I am the Benefits Specialist in the HR Dept in a corporation. A manager wants to know what is available now for one of his direct reports in the event of early retirement. We do not furnish that information except to the participant or as required in QDRO situations. However, we cannot find a legal site for that.

There is much protection on health benefits records and some states - such as Alaska - seem to have protection on retirement benefits information. Is there anything under ERISA or elsewhere?

What legal requirements are there regarding the confidentiality of the benefits payable under a qualified retirement plan?

I cannot find anything in the plan document.

I am the Benefits Specialist in the HR Dept in a corporation. A manager wants to know what is available now for one of his direct reports in the event of early retirement. We do not furnish that information except to the participant or as required in QDRO situations. However, we cannot find a legal site for that.

There is much protection on health benefits records and some states - such as Alaska - seem to have protection on retirement benefits information. Is there anything under ERISA or elsewhere?

My firm has just completed a certified audit of a 401(k) plan adopted by 9 employers, who I will call A through I for simplicity sake. Based on ownership percentages, the following controlled groups exist:

Company A: No controlled group

Companies B and C are a controlled group

Companies D,E,F,G, and H are a controlled group

Company I: No controlled group

When we asked the TPA to send us a draft of the Form 5500 for the plan, we received 4 5500's; one for each group described above. Adding up the assets and income of each 5500 equals the amounts on our audit of the plan in whole.

I have never encountered this type of filing. Is it correct? I was expecting one 5500 with a controlled group designation, and am quite confused. The TPA said they filed 4 5500's for 1999, attached the audit to each filing, and did not get the returns rejected by the DOL. Incidently, I called the PWBA helpline and stumped them too!

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks much.

Is it permissible to satisfy a minimum required distribution with an in-kind distribution (e.g., shares of stock)? I was at a seminar last year where the speaker asserted that an in-kind distribution in satisfaction of a MRD was a prohibited transaction. Outside of this one individual, I have not seen any other discussion on this point. Your thoughts would be appreciated.

With the new catch-up contribution rules in 2002, will the employer have to make the mandatory match on the catch-up contribution amount?

I have a situtation where it is not entirely clear to me whether or not the arrangement should be classified as a multiple employer plan.

The employer leases some of its workers to unrelated entities. However, my client treats all of those workers as its employees for all purposes. However, those unrelated employers make "profit sharing" contributions to the plan.

You could argue that it is a single employer plan, because all of the participants are employees of my client. On the other hand, because profit sharing contributions are made to the plan by unrelated employers, you could argue that it is a multiple employer plan.

(The workers are not subject to a collective bargaining agreement.)

Any thoughts?

20% withholding was deducted from lump sum distribution; however, Client inadvertently sent both checks to participant. Somehow the participant cashed the withholding check and attempts by the client to recover the funds have been in vain.

Should Client take the following steps:

1. Carefully document what has occurred,

2. Send written communication to participant explaining their tax liability if the funds are not returned, and

3. Issue the 1099R for 2001 with $0 withholding.

Are there other ramifications that should be considered?

Many thanks!

I have been looking at hiring a entry level pension administrator with less than 2 years experience more than 1, college graduate, passed Pa-1 Aspa course. What would be the salary range to expect? I am in the Washington DC area.

A defined contribution plan in existence since 1993 now needs an audit. We have performed a limited scope audit according to DOL regs so we will be disclaiming an opinion on that basis, but now I am trying to get happy with beginning participant account balances. It seems nearly impossible to recreate participant account balances from inception as PPC suggests. What have others done? The assets have been with the same insurance company since inception, and I was considering requesting SAS 70 reports for as far back as they can provide, hoping that controls over investments, earnings, contributions and distributions were addressed. Any help is appreciated.

I have a great opportunity to but a piece of rental property. My question is I have a roth IRA that I am not using to buy this rental property. If I buy the rental and 5 years from now try to use the money from my IRA to buy a home will That be a non-tax distribution under the 1st time home buyers exception?:confused:

Is it required that a Form 5500 be filed for a medical FSA that is funded by the employer only? Whether Yes or No, what is the reason?

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.