We have a DRO that requires payment by check made out to the alternate payee and her attorney, with both signatures required for payment. While the order otherwise meets the qualification requirements, we will issue the check payable to the alternate payee only. The attorney is giving me grief. Anyone have a quick citation for our position? Thanks.

If a Company's year end (6/30) is different than the 401K plan year end (12/31):

How do you determine the deduction limit? Compensation, deferrals, and match for what period?

What plan year contributions are deductible for what Company's year end? As of 6/30/00 - do you look at the 12/31/99 contribution or the "estimated" 12/31/00 contribution? Does the contribution have to paid by a certain time?

I have a 501©(3) organization with no HCE's. The organization would like to install a plan weighted in favor of its executive director. Since there are no owners or HCE's, rate grouping won't work. Instead, I'm considering a super integrated formula, which will accomplish their objectives. Can this be done? Is it the best design? With no HCE's, I assume discrimination testing is not done. Any comments? Thanks.

What sort of documentation is needed for a disabled dependent to be qualified for the DCAP if any? Are special after school programs for this individual qualified expenses? How about when there is no school and they have all-day programs? Are these qualified expenses for the Dependent Care Assistance Program? (the disabled dependent is 11 yrs. old if that makes a difference)

A 66 year old man has a regular IRA. He would like to transfer a particular stock out of his regular IRA into a Roth to shelter the potential gain from the stock. Since his and his wife's only income is from his IRA and Social Security, is he eligable to establish a Roth?

Is there any source that can provide information on the details of certain companies pension plans? For example, does the company ENRON have a cash balance plan with a lump sum option for payout?

I have a client that is converting its DB plan to a Cash Balance Plan and a couple of issues have come up and I cannot seem to find guidance - perhaps the answer is so simple that there is no guidance out there - please help if you can:

1) if a participant terminates employment with the employer, but is not going to commence benefits until a later date, can the employer require the employee to make a choice as to whether he is going to keep his benefits under the old DB plan or whether he will elect the cash balance benefits at the time of termination -- instead of allowing the employee to defer the decision until he actually decides to retire?

2) my client will have two categories - group A has a choice between the DB plan and the cash balance plan, group B has to choose the cash balance plan. If an employee transfers from group A to group B what what is the consequence, since now the employee is a member of a group who does not have the option of participating in the DB plan?

Forgive me if these questions seem elementary, but I am a new attorney just getting started in the employee benefits area. Thanks for your help.

A small closly held employer with a non-leveraged ESOP wants to terminate the plan before this year end, and begin distributions immediately. It is a calendar year plan. Must a new stock valuation be done, and if so, what date is the valuation for? The termination date?

Distributions of amounts less than $200 are not required to be eligible for direct rollover and are not subject to mandatory withholding. The language in the 402(f) notice does not apply to these situations. Therefore, shouldn't plan administrators be able to immediately make distributions to terminated participants with less than $200 vested account balances without providing the 402(f) notice and without waiting 30 days? It would seem a cover letter with the check explaining the 60 day rollover rule would suffice.

QDRO- Should the segregated funds due a QDRO recipient unpon retirement of the Plan Participant be reported on the SSA in the year in which the funds are segregated? I believe so, and intend to report them as such. Any comments?

Does a foreign governmental health plan qualify as "health insurance coverage" so that loss of such coverage qualifies an individual for a Special Enrollment Period?

To qualify for a Special Enrollment Period, Section 2590.701-6(a)(3) of the HIPAA regs state that the individual had to have been covered under another group health plan or had other insurance coverage at the time the coverage was previously declined.

It is clear that a foreign governmental health plan would not meet the definition of "group health plan" set forth in IRS Code Section 50000(B)(1).

Section 2590.701-2, Definitions, of the HIPAA regs defines "health insurance coverage" as benefits consisting of medical care (provided directly, through medical insurance, reimbursement, or otherwise) under any hospital or medical service policy or certificate, hospital or medical service plan contract, or HMO contract offered by a health insurance issuer.

On the surface, a foreign governmental health plan does not appear to qualify as "health insurance coverage," except perhaps as a medical service plan contract.

If you've had any experience with this issue, please advise!

Can anyone give me some insight into who may serve as custodian for a 403(B)(7) custodial account? Doesn't a bank typically serve as custodian? I'm dealing with a situation where an individual believes he is the custodian of the current mutual fund accounts. Is this permissible?

Employer maintains a 401(k) and an ESOP with identical eligibility requirements. Both plans provide for a discretionary match based on deferrals to the 401(k). Each year the Employer determines the dollar amount it will contribute for the plan year. Then that amount is split in halfbetween the two plans and allocated as a discretionary match based on deferrals to the 401(k). If a

participant has not deferred to the 401(k), he does not share in the contribution in either plan. A

participant in both plans will receive an identical amount in each plan.

Example: Participant defers $5,000 to 401(k). Employer decides to contribute 50% of the amount

deferred. The participant receives $1250 in the 401(k) and $1250 in the ESOP.

Q-1: May the ESOP allocate its matching contribution based on deferrals to another plan?

Q-2: Should the ACP test be run for the combined plans so that the numerator of this individuals’s

ratio is $2500, OR should there be two separate identical ACP tests using $1250 as the numerator

in his ratio?

Any thoughts will be appreciated.

I am looking for a definition of a Governmental Plan. How does one determine whether your Insurance Benefit programs qualify as a governmental plan.?

I work with a local Commission in Louisiana that is considered to be a component part of Louisanan State Government. This commission offers Health,Accidental Death and Life insurance benefits to its employees. The employees do pay a portion of these benefits through payroll deduction.

These insurance benefits are provided by National Insurance Carriers. Although during fiscal year 99 (11/01/98 - 10/31/99) the Commissions Health Insurance Program was Self Insured with an Insurance Agency providing administration of the Health Benefits.

I am trying to determine whether this commission is required to file form 5500 for these insurance benefits. The 5500 instructions indicate that Governmental Plans are exempted from reporting requirements. However there is no defintion of Governmental Plan in the instructions.

Any quidance reagrding this matter is be appreciated.

Thanks

Can anyone suggest any ideas for a small TPA looking for a service/web site/individual that makes salary/benefit comparisons for positions in our company to similiar positions in other companies in the southeast?

I am interested in any feedback from recordkeepers and other service providers that have been audited by the DOL. What were the expected vs unexpected issues that arose from the audit?

The DOL office conducting the audit is Boston, MA. The letter received is the initial request for documents with a checklist of 10 items to forward within 20 days. The audit years are 1995 - present. Requested items include:

1. Identify subsidiaries and affilitiates of the our company.

2. Identify all plans serviced.

3. All written guidelines.

4. List of all persons responsible for servicing the plan.

5. Copies of plan documents.

6. Copies of sample service / administrative agreements.

In our 403b plan, we have a group of employees who normally do not receive retirement contributions, however, they are not specifically excluded from plan participation in the Plan document. If one of these employees exceeds 1,000 hours, does that mean that we need to make retroactive contributions for those employees or would we do that on a prospective basis. If retro contributons should be given, would they be given back to the beginning of the calendar year or the employee's anniversary date.

(FYI, we monitor this group's hours to ensure that they do not exceed the 1,000 hour cap, but sometimes it is necessary to retain one of these employees for longer than 1,000 hours.)

Is anyone aware of a ruling or case that addresses the situation where a valuation for purposes of a gift for estate planning purposes is not consistent with an ESOP valuation. I recall that there was some guidance on this issue, but can't seem to find it. It seems to me that this should not be a problem as they are very different animals.

Appreciate any guidance.

We have a new group coming on with us and they have a Flex Plan. With their old carrier they had an automatic reimbursement feature where their claims were submitted through the regular health plan and anything that was not covered like deductibles would automatically be put through their Flex Plan for reimbursement through the Health FSA. It was my understanding that participants had to submit these uncovered charges to us with a request form that had a statement on the bottom saying that the claim has not been reimbursed elsewhere, etc. Do they have to have that statement every time or can they sign off on something at the beginning of the plan year so we can do the automatic reimbursement for them? Any regulations on this? Anybody have any information regarding this situation?

Can you help? I am working with a client with a loan taken out in 1986, met the $50,000 limit (which was probably less than 1/2 his vested account balance at the time) secured by his principal residence. The loan papers required that he annually pay accrued interest for the year (at what was probably a reasonable rate at the time)and one twentyfifth of the principal - obviously the loan period is 25 years.

All of this met the terms of the plan document at the time. Now the plan has been amended (let's hope so, right??) to require payments at least quarterly. Are his old loan provisions grandfathered in? or must we make quarterly payments of principal and interest based on the amended document and more recent law changes but contrary to the agreement he signed originally???