I currently have a Roth IRA with a brokerage company. I am dissatisfied with the way the company handles my account and would like to terminate with them. How can I "take control" of the mutual fund stock in my account?

A plan provides that a lump sum is paid based on the PBGC male rates and factors as of 1/1 of a plan year.

With respect to mortality rates, some may say this means UP 84 + 1. However, PBGC rates include a unisex UP84 table with no age adjustment. So where does the rational to use UP84+1 for males come from? If anyone knows this. Otherwise I might argue to use the GAM83 PBGC table (Table 1, Appendix A, Part 4044 of ERISA).

Thanks, Gary

POP Plan provides that an employee will be eligible as soon as they are eligible for health benefits. The employer has a substantial number of 20-25 hour per week employees who will never meet the 30 hour requirement for coverage under an insured plan. Most of these employees would not be excludable under 410(B) coverage testing Would these individual have to be included in a 125 eligiblity test?

Could you simply design the Plan to provide for eligibility at the first day of hire? It seems silly to provide for participation in a 125 Plan if the employee can never qualify for non-taxable benefits under the plan.

I have a client that has recently discovered that his office manger has embezzled company funds. This client maintains both a Money Purchase Pension Plan and a Profit Sharing Plan for his employees. This employee is a participant in both plans and is currently 60% vested in both account balances. Can the client use the vested balances in the plans to "offset" the total amount that was embezzled? My initial thought is that the vested portion is the employees, regardless of criminal misconduct. Have any of you ever had this situation arise and what advise did you give the client?

I've been asked for advice on the following situation.

An IRA owner under 59 1/2 begins receiving equal periodic payments when the account value is $1,000,000. He receives two or three years of payments under the amortization method.

Through poor investing, he drives the account value down to $80,000. If he takes this year's payment, the account will zero out.

Next year, there's no money to take his required payment. Is this a modification subject to recapture?

In the state of Pennsylvania a law was enacted in 1975 making newborn coverage mandatory for the first 31 days of life. Can any one tell me if Coordination of Benefits would start on the 32 day or immediately within that 31 days. I have a newborn that we are unable do determine which carrier is primary due to this law.

For those of you that offer a stock brokerage window in your qualified plan, are there any specific 5500 reporting requirements to report either summary or detail balances of each stock held? A stock brokerage window allows participants to pick and choose specific stocks they want held within their qualified plan. I would like to know to what extent the reporting requirments are. Is a one line summary total required or does it get so ugly that individual stock values must be reported?

If a top heavy money purchase pension plan terminates mid-year, is the plan sponsor still responsible for top heavy minimum funding for the short plan year of termination? Does the answer change for a 401(k)plan? Any citations would be appreciated. Thanks.

After several months of reseaching outsourcing daily services, I have decided to investigate Cobel's "Daily Professional" System. We currently use Quantech, so the fit should be good. Is anyone with experience with the product willing to comment here on through e-mail. I'd be interested in hearing about start up costs, ease of use and anything that might be helpful making a decision.

I have two questions:

1)If a tax-exempt organization wishes to offer a non-qualified plan, is a 457 plan their only option?

2)Recently, I heard something about a private letter ruling that allowed a tax-exempt to maintain some type of non-qualified stock option plan. Is anyone familiar with this?

Does anybody know of any companies that are cutting back on discretionary expenditures such as free coffee, danish at meetings, free parking etc?

We are giving a talk on "Defned Contribution Health & Welfare Plans";

I would like to include a few real live case studies...in addition to the couple we have experienced...one a total, case book example of what not to do.

Does anyone have case studies they are willing to share?

Thanks ,

Jere Cowden

I have a loan origination date that is 1/24/01, and the first payment date of the loan is 2/16/01.

This is a 60 month loan, paid weekly.

52 weeks * 5 years = 260 payments.

Based on 260 payments, including the first one on 2/16/01, the final payment will be made on 2/3/06.

With 1/24/01 as the origination date, this loan exceeds 60 months.

Can this be corrected? Is it an issue because of the approx. 3 week difference between origination and first payment?

What options do I have to remedy this?

I did chang the origination date to 2/3/01, but then the client will receive the proceeds before the origination date. Is this permitted?

Thanks You!

there was an item that appeared in the benefitslink newsletter that says that participant account statements can contain a legend that says something like "Please review this report and notify us of any discrepancies within 60 days. After 60 days, corrections will be made on a current basis."

Is a policy like this permissable, particularly if the error was one made by the record keeper?

In 1999 my employer started a Simple IRA. In the body of the "Employee Notice" it reads:

" For 1999, your employer will (employer to complete) {which he did}

match your elective contributions up to 2% of your compensation"

But he has NEVER made a contribution. Is this legal? What are my rights? Does the employer face any penalties & fees? If anyone has any info on this I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you.

I have a plain and simple question. I think . I would like to cancel my 401k and withdraw 100 % of the funds.

I know about the 10 % penalty and 20% withholding. I am well under the age of 59 1/2. What options do I have , if any.

It is typically not the best practice for an actuary to sign a Schedule B if the client (or his advisor) provides only an unsigned plan document. But, it is a violation of ERISA, etc., if an actuary does so?

On takeover cases, I've sometimes seen prototypes (either standardized or nonstandardized) that are unsigned. That doesn't necessarily mean that there isn't a copy somewhere that has been signed. And the actuarial valuation and Schedule B signed by the prior actuary reflects plan terms consistent with the unsigned document. And when I push, a signed document is generally sent to me.

However, what happens if the original signed documents simply do not exist. Assuming (for the moment) that they were truly signed, there is obviously no direct evidence of the existance of a plan. The indirect evidence would be -- the client has been operating assuming he has a valid plan, the prior actuary has been operating assuming he has a valid plan, the investment firm has been operating assuming he has a valid plan, etc.

Now, this would of course become an issue when obtaining a determination letter, but that is often delayed, courtesy of 401(B). Meanwhile, there is an ongoing valuation requirement and a 5500 requirement.

What to do in this imperfect situation --- ideas?

In order to qualify for the exception to the 10% penalty from premature distributions under IRC 72(t), is it alright to begin monthly substantially equal periodic payments in mid-year such that the total of the payments during the initial year would be less than a full year's worth? I believe this question is somewhat corollary to the amount which must distributed in the year in which the taxpayer reaches age 59 1/2. Thus, in the initial year and in the final year of age 59 1/2 (assuming that a full 5 years 60 months minimum has transpired), is it permissible to make the monthly payments effective with a mid-year start date for example July 2000 and the monthly payments cease with the month of June 2005 (assuming age 59 1/2 had been attained by June 2005)?

We annually "liquidate" accounts of former employees. We give them a choice of receiving cash (minus the 20% withholding) or a rollover to another shelter they provide us the account information about.

It is my understanding that there is a dollar amount below which it is not necessary to withhold the the 20%. What is that dollar amount?

Thanks

It seems I may have been under a rock for a while. I just read that the 70-1/2 minimum distribution rule was changed back in 1996 or 1997 to the effect that as long as an employee is still in active service after 70-1/2, there is no age-driven minimum distribution required.

Does that change, if I am understanding it correctly, apply to a Governmental 401(a) plan?

If so, does the change supercede our Plan Document provision requiring that minimum distribution?

If it applies to our Plan, do we have to immediately change the Plan Document to incorporate this change in Federal statute (i.e. is that okay if we wait for some other changes to accumulate, so long as we don't enforce it?)

Thanks