Where can I find information on ERISA lawsuits? I'm researching pending and historical litigation against plan sponsors and analyzing by business type, type of claim, etc.

A 401(k) Plan allows a participant to begin receiving retirement benefits before actual retirement once he reached age 65. If a participant is 70 at 12/31/00 and continues working, can he take a distribution of his entire account balance, roll it over to a Traditional IRA in 2001 and then roll it over into a Roth IRA before April 1, 2002 which is his required beginning date? Once in a Roth IRA, the MRD rules do not apply, right?

Can a 5% owner who is 70 1/2 and not retired, continue to make contributions to the plan while receiving his MRD?

Section 420 states the tax treatment on amounts transferred out of 401(h) accounts to a transferor plan. What is a "transferor plan"? Can the transferor plan be the pension plan? Our situation involves terminating the 401(h) accounts and returning the assets that remain in the 401(h) accounts. If the assets go to a "transferor" plan, does that mean that there is 50% reversion tax to the employer and the transferred assets are not includable as gross income to the employer?. Do the excess assets have to be returned to the pension plan? Are there any other tax ramifications associated with this situation?

Hello, My name is David Rein, I am a doctoral student at Georgia State University. I am looking to speak with benefit administrators of self insured companies about the way they finance dependent coverage for dental, vision and other ancillary health services. Particularly, I am interested in speaking to managers with experience going from a two-tiered dependent option (payer or payer + family) to a three tiered structure (payer, Payer +1, Payer + family). Any information at all on this topic would be appreciated.

Participant's claim to excess cash surrender value prior to rollout of a split-dollar policy

Do the involutary cash-out rules ($5,000) that apply to qualified plans also apply to 403(B)s? If so, does it depend on the contract wording?

Does it matter if the plan is an ERISA plan or not?

Are there different rules that apply to deferrals versus employer contributions?

A small employer (less than 10 employees) sold her business in an asset sale. The owner is continuing as a consultant under the same name. The plain vanilla profit sharing plan was terminated at the same time the business was sold, and all participants were paid. Can the owner immediately start a SIMPLE plan?

I recently switched jobs and am not eligible for participation in my company's 401(k) until 1/1/02. I expect I'll leave my money in my former company's 401(k) until then. However, in the meantime I'm interested in making contributions to a Roth IRA. I'm married filing jointly, my spouse doesn't work and my income exceeds the $160k annual limit. Am I still able to participate in a Roth IRA, or even a conventional IRA? I really don't want to wait a year and a half to make retirement contributions.

A participant died and had a valid loan outstanding at the time of his death. Surviving spouse wants to continue to make loan repayments on loan. Loan docs. and promissory note silent on issue. Is this permissible??

Sec 4.04 of Rev. Proc 95-51 - Approval for Takeover Plans - states that if the net charge in the funding standard account produced by the new actuary does not differ by more than 5% from the net charge caclulated by the prior actuary, than it will not be deemed a change in funding method.

Does this technically mean that even though I may be within 1% of the prior actuaries liabilities, but because of FF limits, my required contribution may be 2 times or 1/2 of the prior actuaries "net charges", than I should disclose a change in funding method?

For example: If Plan expected EOY assets were $15,400 and the prior actuary determined the EOY OBRA CL to be $10,000 and I determined it to be $10,100 OBRA CL, this would actually increase my "net charges" by 255% (10,000 *1.55 - 15,400 = 100 vs. 10,100 * 1.55 - 15,400 = 255)

Would you say that I had a change in method? This particular plan is using FIL and has a UAL.

If W-8BEN is solicited and received in connection with a distribution from a state governmental qualified plan from a non resident alien who is residing in a foreign country, and the form as completed by the NRA states that there is a tax treaty provision that exempts withholding, can the plan administrator accept that statement at face value or is there some due diligence imposed upon the plan administrator to ascertain if there is a treaty,and if there is in fact an exception to withholding? If you can rely on the certification, what's to stop NRAs from putting whatever they want on the form. It appears abuses could develop. On the other hand as a plan adminstrator, I would like to be able to just accept the form and not become an international tax expert. Any thoughts?

David G.

DOES ANYONE HAVE A SAMPLE LETTER FOR COBRA DISCONTINUATION THAT I CAN REVIEW?

A client has an oerfunded DB plan. Part of the overfunding will be soaked up when they cover some controlled group employees which were, until now, not participating in the plan. When we correct using the SVC program, can you use plan assets to pay the use fee ahd the attorneys' fees. I can't find any prohibition, but I can't find anythnig in support of using plan funds either.

Thanks

I have been asked to conduct a benefits analysis and need to determine how competitive our company is in the benefits we provide our employees. I am looking for a benefits survey that can provided me with data as to what the most competitve firms are offering employees. We would like to see data on a Regional Level as well as on the National Level. My company is in the IT/Software industry in the Northeast (Boston Area). Any suggestions on where I could find this type of info.?

Participant in 401(k) plan (segregated accounts) with 2 outstanding loans comes back to work after maternity leave and now works only 2 days a week (previously full time). Loan payments were payroll deducted prior to leave, but part-time pay is not enough to cover loan payments. Loans were amortized over 5 years originally, so cannot re-amortize to lower payments. If she takes a deemed distribution, is she still required to pay back loans? If so, how? If not, will loans continue to be an investment of the plan and accrue interest?

Does anyone know if there are any audiotapes covering the C2(DC) material? I commute and would like to try to study while commuting. Thanks for your help.

Ann Monaghan

aam@ebrworld.com

Can monies be withdrawn from the Roth Ira to pay for College expenses, i.e. tuition. If so, tax free or not?

Is there any guidance on who can be considered a family member for purposes of the hardship withdrawal rules and the funeral expenses example? Can a plan document define family member any way at all (2nd cousins counted, for example), should the definition under 414(q) be used, etc.?

Are there any instances where protected benefit issues apply to non-qualified plans?