I am looking for comments on the use of web-based employee benefits systems such as Simpata and Arioso. I am particularly interested in whether or not you feel they will survive given the efforts of most larger carriers to develop proprietary systems.

I am an American, a resident of New York State, who lives in Taiwan; my wife is a Taiwanese.

I make less than $50,000 US a year ( which is tax exempt as I reside overseas).

I have no other income in the US.

Can I open a Roth IRA ?

If so, can I put in up to $ 4,000 each year even though my wife is not an American ?

Can she be the beneficiary of this account should I pass away?

Thanks

Todd Wyks

Can I reconvert a recharacterized IRA in 2001 before extended filing date and pay taxes on the reconversion in 2000?

I rolled over a 401-K from my employee plan in September 2000 to a Rollover IRA. Then I converted to a Roth IRA in December 2000. Market went south. So, I recharacterized the entire amount from Roth into the Rollover IRA in April 2001. If I do the reconversion of the Rollover IRA back into the Roth IRA after waiting for 31 days, can I include the Roth reconversion as 2000 taxable income. I have filed an extension for 2000. I have a Roth IRA conversion eligibility window for 2000. It is unlikely that I will be eligible for Roth conversion in 2001.

Thank you in advance.

I recently head someone say that an individual account plan (EIAP) is a cheaper alternative to a traditional ESOP. I thought an EIAP included ESOPs. How are they different?

I am a 60 year old man forcibly retired on medical grounds, i.e. mental illness in 1955, without the Right of Appeal.

However, I have just been advised by Benefit Agency that I am no longer retired, cured suddenly, as if by a mircale - without having given me any medical examination. No reason is given to me. It would seem that I am not entitled to know the reason why I am no longer retired.

No one, however, will give me a medical certificate, confirmating that I have now been cured.

Consequently, I am without any income and have no means of support whatsoever.

I have contacted my MP, Citizens Advice Bureaux and countless number of solicitors - they all say they cannot help me in any way.

What can I do now?

France Chorley

London N15

My e-mail address: f_chorley@hotmail.com

Hi,

In 1998 I converted a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA and chose the four year spread with which to pay taxes. In both 1998 and 1999 I had a professional prepare my income taxes and for both of those years he used Form 8606.

In 2000 I prepared my own taxes using Turbo Tax. In order to prepare Form 8606 I had to override some numbers. In haste I just followed what my tax preparer had done in 1999.

Now that the rush is over was it necessary to prepare Form 8606? If so which lines should I have filled in? Following what my tax preparer had done perhaps I was filling in the incorrect lines. Since I still have one more year to go I would like to make sure that I prepare my taxes correctly in so far as the Roth is concerned. Thanks for your guidance.

ok i need to know how to set an IRA up and i need to know the starting requierments to start an IRA and can i start 1 up at the age of 17

Can a nonqualified plan be set up to cover non-key executives for the sole purpose of deferring compensation in excess of the maximum 401(k) employee deferral rate (i.e. 10,500)?

I understand that a top hat plan limits participation to a select group of management or highly compensated employees. Would this group meet this definition?

If it doesn't fit the "top hat" definition, can it be an excess plan, with the select group mentioned above?

Does the DOL's new Guidance issued on Plan expenses apply to Government plans (as defined in section 1002 (32) of ERISA)?

A construction company has a 401(k) Plan with a 6 month service eligibilty requirement, with monthly entry. The company does have a high number of employees who get temporarily layed off do to low work orders at any give time. It does not appear that this is due to "seasonal" conditions.

What would happen in the following situation: Employee is hired 1/1/01, works 4 months, then is layed off for 3 months, then comes back and works the rest of the year. When does he enter the Plan?

Check the Plan document you say? Document does not address what to do in these situations. I even spoke with the document provider (national document firm) who confirmed this. I was hoping to see in the definition section of the document something that would say that an employee is someone who is providing services to the employer, but no such language is in there.

Important fact is that the employer continues to pay for health premiums and certain other fringe benefits for the employees while they are layed off.

This last point leads me to believe in the above situation, the employee is in the Plan on 7/1/01. Because he is receiving some form of ongoing compensation from the employer (eg health premium payments), he must still be considered an employee, even though layed off. But since he did not work even 1 hour in those last 2 months, does that trump the fact that he is receiving some form of compensation in those months, meaning he is not in on 7/1/01?

Any comments are appreciated.

Money Purchase Plan terminated as of 1/26/99. Filed for IRS approval 4/9/99 and received approval 11/9/99. All the assets have been properly distributed.

Just recieved notice that the IRS want to audit the plan for the pye 6/30/99. They have a list of 24 items to gather for the audit. Explained to the reviewer that the plan was just reviewed and approved for the plan termination and asked if he could scale down his requirements for the audit. He said he could not.

This seems like an unfair burden and expense for the taxpayer.

Any suggestions?

May a 401(k) plan with a last day requirement for matching contributions make and allocate the match throughout the year, permit the participant to direct investment of the amount allocated, and then take it away if the participant is not employed on the last day?

Primary concerns: (1) taking away something allocated and communicated, and (2) permitting someone other than the trustee to direct the investment of funds he eventually may not be entitled to.

Thanks for any thoughts and experience.

We are using Relius administration with the VRU and Web modules. I am wondering what other users are doing for website security. Do you have your websites in house? What type of software are you using for the secure socket layer? Are you using any other method to secure your site?

Thank you for your help!

Company A acquired Company B in 2000. Company B's 401(k) plan is merged into Company A's 401(k) plan on 3/1/2001.

Company A's plan bases vesting on elapsed time (employment year). Company B's plan bases vesting on 1000 hours (plan year).

I am struggling with how to accommodate the simultaneous changes in computation period (plan year to employment year) and service crediting (hours counting to elapsed time) methods.

Anyone have any suggestions, maybe with some examples? I have looked at the regs, but it is not clear to me how they operate when making both changes simultaneously.

I'm part of a SARSEP plan my employer set up with Equitable - but I'd like to move some of the funds to another type of investment other than mutual funds and definitely out of Equitable's fund groups. Can I do this? How do I do it?

If we have a gap in coverage while changing carriers, is this conisidered a termination of the plan, ending coverage for COBRA purposes? At some point this gap should become large enough that it qualifies as a termination. How long? Has anyone confronted this issue? Thougts? Authority? Thanks!

We are a consulting firm that performs compliance and record-keeping services for qualified retirement plans on a fee basis.

We have a client, a small employer, who sponsors a 401(k) profit sharing retirement plan. The employer recently filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and ceased to exist.

This client did not pay for our past services. These past services were covered under a Service Provider Agreement that described our services and rates, and was signed by the plan’s trustees.

What is our legal liability to provide further services for this plan? The employer does not intend to file for a letter of favorable termination. Its representatives most likely cannot file Form 5500 nor process distribution forms, Forms 1099-R, tax withholding, etc. accurately.

Can we in any way be held responsible for refusing to provide services for this plan due to lack of past and future payment? Specifically, these services would protect the tax-qualified status of the participant’s retirement benefit.

Facts: Medical Practice, Corporation (PA) 4 MD’s each 25% owners. Profit sharing plan with max contribution. One of the MD’s has another practice (Proprietorship) which also sponsors a PSP. His total anual additions combining

the two plans has been approx. $50,000.

I just assumed duties as “Plan Administrator” for the Corp plan. I have been assured by CPA of the MD in question that this arrangement has been reviewed by a tax attorney and there is no problem. There is NO connection between the

practices, there are NO referrals, there is NO possibility of this being an Affiliated Service Group. Why am I worried?

Any insight or experience with Affiliated Service Groups would be appreciated.

Sign me;

Just a simple TPA

Association of professionals sponsors a MEWA, pursuant to which benefits are funded through adopting employer (and employee) contributions. Each adopting employer therefore sponsors an ERISA welfare benefit plan. No adopting employer has more than 20 participants, so no 5500 is required if ech plan is considered unfunded, fully insured or a combination. I think the separate arrangements can be considered fully insured because benefits are paid exclusively through an insurance contract (each adopting employer must sign a participation agreement), and premiums are paid directly to the insurance carrier (the MEWA). Does anyone have any insight into this?

Also, assuming that the arrangements are exempt from the 5500 filing requirement, does this obviate the requirement of the MEWA to provide each adopting employer with the information required to complete a Schedule A (ERISA 103(a)(2))? Thanks

We have a non-erisa 403b plan, when I took over this job I found out that some payments were not made for year 2000 for 4 employees. I sent a check in to put this money back into the account. The employees terminated and the employees have already withdrawn their money and the administrator sent me back the check. My question is as the employer do I send this money to the former employee or keep it for the company? The money has not been withheld from the paychecks because it is employer deferred. Also, if anyone knows how to tax this money if the employee receives it or do I need to worry about taxes at all?