When are 401(k) plans tested? Eg if you have employers coming in and out of the control group during the year, do you count all those employees or just those at year end?

Anyone know a way to overcome the global date option

(6 char) on census DERs because Qtech forces either a century 19 or century 20 option for all dates in the routine. Excel defaults to 20 if year is less than 30.

But this doesn't solve the 5.0 DCM imports where we have encountered plan entry dates or term dates that are last year and current year being returned by clients using 4.1 DCM systems. This means we will need to supply all clients with new DCM systems and use 8 character dates from now on or interrogate closely each client DAT file. I have talked with one of the Qtech programmers who says no mods are planned for 5.1 or 6.0 to change this.

Also... 5.0 documentation states the need to convert our DERs for 5.0, but customer support says "no need" until we go to 5.1. What's with this? I assume conversion does not

do anything to overcome the date problem.

To what extent is a 403(B) plan (with employer contributions and salary reduction) subject to 414(p)? Any other help/advice with respct to domestic relations orders would be appreciated.

Is there any formal (or informal) guidance stating that employees are responsible for monitoring their own 402(g) deferral limits when they participate in the plans of unrelated employers during the same calendar year?

Would it be discriminatory for an employer to charge highly compensated employees 10% of health insurance costs and nonhighly compensated employees 20%, where all employees can exercise the option to pay for their portion of helath insurance premium on a pre-tax basis through a cafeteria plan?

At what level of the organization (VP, CEO, etc.) can executives typically participate in an executive deferred compensation program? Up to what % of salary? What vehicle are deferred funds typically invested in? (We're establishing a program in our company - Thanks for your help!)

I know this has been addressed before but I can't find it. Anyway, an eigible employee was left off census and subsequently not offered opportunity to enroll in 401k. His eligibility date was 1/1/98. Employer wants to make up for the mistake.

Document states that, "in any Plan Year, any Employee who should be included as a Particiapnt in the plan, is erroneously omitted and discovery is not made until after a contribution by his Employer for the year has been made and allocated, the Employer shall make a subsequent contribution with respect to the omitted Employee in the amount which the Employer ould have contributed...had he not been omitted"

Ok, easy enough if this were a MP or PS plan, but what about deferrals? And what about gains? Accounts are daily valued and who knows what he would have picked as an asset allocation. Any ideas or points of reference will be greatly appreciated. We have some idea of what we think would be ok but I want to hear from others who have had the ssme issue.

Thanks!

A 501©(3) organization has a 403(b)plan for their employees with only voluntary salary reduction contributions.However they signed an ERISA type plan document with the annuity carrier and they have been filing Form 5500. They never have made, nor do they intend to make Employer contributions as this is strictly a voluntary 403(b)plan. Questions: Does the fact that they signed a plan document and filed 5500s make them an ERISA plan?? If not how do they go about correcting this - i.e. filing a final 5500 with an explanation??

Does anyone have information about a "Springing Cash Value Annuity" contract? It would be used in situation where the plan is greatly overfunded and would like to use all assets to buy a contract which in a few years would have a lump sum value that would pay back the excess.

I'm 22 and preparing for marriage in November. Between my wife and I, we will make +/- $75,000.00 a year. I'm looking for a step-by-step procedure in planing for retirement. With so many options out there, what is the best way to go. Is Roth all they say it is?? Also, does anyone know of a way become wealthy while I'm still young.

I have a controlled group consisting of corporation A,B,and C,each of which sponsors its own plan for its own employees. None of the cg members costitutes a QSLOB,so my coverage,participation,and non-discrimination testing must be done on group-wide basis. My understanding of the testing process is that I'm testing on a "per plan" basis,i.e.,in testing Plan A, I'm only considering those non-excludable employees of Co. A who accrued a benefit or received an allocation as "benefitting". The employees of Cos. B and C are considered as not benefitting under Plan A,even though they they are benefitting under their own respective plans.Is this the correct way to perform the coverage and (if applicable) the participation tests.

A second question: If Plan A,B, and C individually are safe-harbor plans,is my testing complete? Or must the accrual/allocation rates be tested regardless?

Let's say a plan sponsor of a profit sharing plan has elected a discretionary provision in her plan with a pro-rata on comp allocation formula. If she can afford it she makes a contribution but if she can't then she won't. I know Treas. Reg. §1.401-(a) isn't violated and the service doesn't have a problem (last I heard) with this election.

Now let's say the plan is a 401(k) plan with a match. The match contribution requirement is discretionary as in the profit sharing plan. But the allocation formula is 10% of salary deferrals up to a discretionary percent of eligible compensation.

Does this "double discretion" violate the "definite formula" provision of Treas. Reg. §1.401-1(a)(2)(ii)? If so, is there a correction available?

A plan is anended to a cash balance plan a few years ago. All that exists are amendments and resolutions, but no restated document. The current docs are w/r to the prior traditional pension plan. The conclusion is that the plan has been significantly changed with extensive papre trails of changes, but no doc. Is there a law against this, when it is to such a large extent? The amendments and resolutions are barely comprehensible due to how lengthy and confusing they are. Any comments out there?

Plan provides opening balace using a relatively high interest rate. As a result there is signinficant wearaway. Are there specific rules against this or is it just tough luck to the employee?

This is w/r to a cash balance plan

This past April, I had a traditional IRA with contributions I had made for the 1998 and 1999 tax year. I had happened to contribute to one mutual fund for the 1998 tax year, and a different mutual fund for the 1999 tax year. In April (around the 5th of the month), since I couldn't afford to convert the entire balance of the IRA (1998 + 1999), I only wanted to do a partial recharacterization of my 1999 contributions to a Roth IRA. My financial institution, First Union, told me that this transaction would have to be based on the entire value of the IRA (contributions + growth from the 1998 fund), not just the contributions I made for tax year 1999. This seemed to agree with what I have recently read on your co-sponsored Rothira.com website: "If you have an account where some assets have increased in value while others have decreased in value, you cannot get the benefit of the decrease by only recharacterizing the losers. The account is viewed as one big pot, and the computation is based on value, not on specific identification of assets."

I filed for a four month extension for my taxes. When the Roth account was finally set up, it was May, but First Union made a mistake by recharacterizing the share amounts of the wrong fund. I left those shares in the Roth account, and had the other fund's shares recharacterized to a Roth. This went through in June, but a representative told me they would be backdated to April 11, 2000. Currently, I have an IRA worth roughly $1700 and a Roth IRA

My question is: When I calculate my 1999 taxable IRA contributions/conversion amount, should I use the value of the funds as of April 11, or the value at the individual dates that the funds were converted by First Union? Also, am I to base the partial conversion on the total value of the fund shares converted, minus the basis for my 1999 (post-tax) contributions and the ratio for my non-deductible 1998 conversions?

A company's stock is traded over-the-counter and listed on the NASDAQ bulletin board. Does this satisfy the definition under Treas. Reg. section 54.4975-7(B)(1)(iv) of "publicly traded" for purposes of the ESOP requirements of a put option and an annual valuation and the prohibition against a right of first refusal on ESOP stock?

I can't find any guidance on point. The closest I have found is a PLR which says that stock traded on the "pink sheets" is not "publicly traded" under that definition. However, the "pink sheet" system is not the same as the NASDAQ bulletin board.

Based only on a reading of the definition, my thought is that the bulletin board constitutes "publicly traded," but since it will affect the way the company's ESOP must be administered, I would like something a little firmer to go on, such as any sort of IRS interpretation, written or oral.

One of our business units recently acquired another company who had offered their employees a PPO and an HMO option. Our company will now (effective 8/1/00) be only offering the employees at that site a PPO option only and will be eliminating the HMO plan. However, one of the employees who was on the HMO plan with the prior company would like to continue with that plan since his wife is pregnant and the HMO will pay 100% of the costs. They've decided that the best way to handle this if for the husband (who is our employee now) to take the PPO plan and the wife to elect COBRA so that she can continue the HMO plan. Once the baby is born obviously the baby can join the PPO plan, but can the wife also join the plan mid-year? Is that considered a qualified status change? If so, does it abide by the consistency rule?

Can a self-employed individual whose children are employed by the business establish an employer-funded medical expense reimbursement plan covering the children (and other employees of the business)?

Can a self employed individual whose children are employed by the business establish an employer funded medical expense reimbursement plan covering the children and any other emlpoyees of the business?

Does anyone know of a good ESOP training course?