Hello,

I have a question about FSA(flexible speinding account).

In year 2000 I decided to put some money to FSA. In May

2000 my company joined another one and on 06-01-2000

we switched insurance to a new insurance company and

new FSA plan.

So, by 06-01-2000 I had some money allocated in FSA, but

my major medical spendings occured in July.

New insurance company doesn't have access to my FSA money and old insurance company is telling me that

I can't use FSA money to cover copayments for services occured after 06-01-2000.

Is it true? I thought money I'm allocating my money into

FBA for the entire year. Am I wrong?

Can FSA money be transferred between insurance

companies/plan administrators?

Thank you.

-- Aleksandr Rainchik

We have a top heavy 401K plan which has a last day of year requirement to receive matching or profit sharing contributions. Does this have any effect on whether employees receive a top heavy contribution? (ie if participant terminated by the end of year and thus doesn't receive a match or PS contribution, do they still have to receive a top heavy contribution?)

When I resigned from my previous employer, I rolled my 401 K balance (about $70K) into a traditional IRA. I am 27. I have been doing a great deal of research on Roth IRAs and find that this a more attractive option. I realize the markets have not been performing well lately (my current balance has hit about $50K), but I should take a long term approach. I asked my CPA about recharacterizing. He suggested letting the traditional IRA in place, and simply opening up a separate Roth IRA. Is this a good idea, or should I convert portions of my Trad to a Roth each year in order to minimize tax penalties? Thanks! Kris J

I converted a regular IRA valued at $8,000 to a Roth on 12/31/00. The current value is $7,000. I filed my 2000 tax return and included the $8,000 of conversion income. Is it to late to recharacterize the $8,000 and at what value? Do I amend my return? What steps do I take to report it?

I'm new to the retirement plan administration world and I have questions about determining my employees maximum contribution to our 403(B) plan.

1. We have a 403 (B) plan that our employees contribute to through salary reduction agreements. This plan is with TIAA-CREF. We also have a 401 (a) profit sharing plan that the company contributes 12% to each year. This plan is with AmSouth Bank. The employees do not contribute to the 401 (a) plan and the company does not contribute to the 403 (B) plan. Do I have to take the company 401 (a) contributions into account when figuring the employee's max contribution to the 403 (B)?

2. In 1997 we formed a new company. All the employees were terminated from the old company and hired by the new company. The two companies have common board members, but one is not a subsidiary of the other. The old company does not have any employees. For purposes of determining max contributions for 2001, do I use the employees' actual hire date or the date they became employees of the new company? As for prior contributions, do I go all the way back and take into consideration contributions made under old company or just contributions made under new company?

3. I would like a plain English defination of 402(g) limit, 403(b)exclusion allowance, 415©(1) limit.

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

If a takeover DB plan is not safe-harbor and has never passed the general test, should the enrolled actuary sign the Schedule B? Or even before it gets to that point - should a valuation be done before the plan defects are corrected?

I'm just curious how other administrators or enrolled actuaries would handle this situation.

And also let's assume the prior actuary is deceased.

A related question would be - If this plan were ineligible for a favorable determination letter, would it nevertheless be appropriate for the actuary to sign the Schedule B; after all, the statement above the signature line on the B doesn't require the plan to be "qualified" ???

Any thoughts are appreciated !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Is it true that an employee of a rural cooperative could possibly defer up to as much as $19,000 ($8,500 in 457 plan and $10,500 in a 401(k))? I see in the Code where Rural Cooperative Plans are excluded from coordination as are others. And could not find anything that says otherwise.

Can a safe harbor 401(k) plan matching formula be structured as follows: 100% of the first 3% of compensation deferred, and 50 cents on the next 3% of compensation deferred (all of which will be matched on a payroll period basis); plus a year-end discretionary match of an additional 50 cents on deferrals above 3% of pay nd up to 6% of pay?

In other words, can any portion of the formula be discretionary? The payroll by payroll match satisfies the safe harbor rules, but does the additional match screw the whole thing up?

Alternatively, could the employer make a match of 100% of the first 3% of compensation deferred, and 50 cents on the next 3% of compensation deferred (all of which will be matched on a payroll period basis); plus a year-end match equal to each employees match in excess of 3% of pay (up to 6%) times a discretionary percentage between 0 and 100?

Can the common stock of a non-US company be used as "employer securities" for an ESOP? The stock would be the common stock of a foreign public company whose stock is trading on the Taiwanese exchange. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Where can I find a good explanation of how to calculate the RMD's based on the new law?

Does anyone know if the cost of an emergency cellular phone would be eligible for someone with diabetes under the FSA plan?

Thank you!!

Former employee receives an additional amount in error as part of a lump sum distribution. He is 54 years old and has retired. He rolls the lump sum to an IRA and begins to take "substantially equal payments" in 2001 to avoid the 72(t) early withdrawal penalty. The plan sponsor notifies him of the excess rollover amount and requests that he ask the custodian to make a corrective distribution. Employee and his accountant believe that they cannot make the withdrawal without it being treated as a modification of the 72(t) 5 year election. Anyone run into this? We can't find any IRS guidance.

Non-Standardized MPPP terminates effective 2/15. None of the employees have actually terminated. Is a contribution required for the period 1/1 through date of termination?

I am looking for some basic and intermediate training on nonqualifed deferred compensation plans. Open to self-study, seminars, videos, etc. Any suggestions?

Anyone want to consult?

We have a client that is a subdivision of a medium size city government. The City and the subdivision sponsor the Virginia Retirement System DB pension plan, with employer pick-up of employee contributions. They also sponsor a 457 plan funded by employee deferrals only. They now want to sponsor some type of plan that would provide matching contributions by the City. We have discussed that the City is not eligible for 401(k) or SIMPLE IRA, they don't like the opportunities afforded by the 457 plan, and a 403(B) plan would apparently only be an alternative to (not in addition to) the 457 plan since the contribution limits are coordinated.

Bottom line, the client is convinced there is a solution and is not entirely confident in our ability to advise in this area. Does anyone have any ideas or want to contact me to set up a conference call, etc. Client is willing and able to pay for "better" advice! 304-325-8157

We've had a client whose DB plan termination 5310 filing (submitted 2/15/2000) was reviewed by an IRS agent and finally recommended for approval last week. This week, the filing was "randomly selected for further review" so we still don't have a determination letter after over 13 months! We're wondering how long the "further review" might take. Have any of you had experience with this?

If an employee is married and carries single Medical coverage, can they add their spouse at the time of a birth? I know that past regulations have allowed this, but I am thinking that the new consistency clarifications say no because adding a spouse is not consistent with the birth of a baby. Am I correct?

An employer maintains an IRS Model SIMPLE IRA with a designated financial institution. One of the participants dies. There is a nonspouse beneficiary. The non-spouse bene does want to take distributions over his life expectancy. Is the employer OBLIGATED to keep the participant's account in the plan and permit the beneficiary to take distributions over his life? If so, what is the employer's responsibility with respect to that bene? Keep the account in the deceased's name? Must he track the bene's whereabouts? Give the bene annual statements? If the employer goes out of business or terminates the plan, doesn't that specific plan account need to be terminated along with the others?

We are in the process of amending our 401 (k) to make the employer match discretionary (from a dollar for dollar match up to 6%, matched bi-weekly), with an effective date of April 2, 2001. Is there a notice period with respect to when employees must be notified of the change? Our third party administrator has indicated that they would be more comfortable with a 15 day notice, which would delay our implementation as our Board is meeting March 23. The third party administrator is taking a conservative approach using defined benefit plan rules. We are under severe financial strain and need to implement right away. Do we need to give 15 days notice to employees?

Late last year, we terminated one of the sponsor's two defined benefit plans. The plan had excess assets that were allocated to participants. All the distributions occurred before 12/31 and everyone was pretty much thinking that 2000 would be the last 5500.

Now the insurance company who provided the annuities has come forward and stated that they made an $11,000 error on the annuity purchase. They charged $11,000 too much and want to send a check back to the plan. Can anyone think of any way to deal with this without having to do another 5500? Unfortunately there are no plan expenses to deal with, these were all paid by the plan before terminating it.

There is probably not a good answer here but I feel obliged to ask. Thanks in advance for any responses.