Employer maintains a number of nonqualified plans for elective deferral of bonus and other incentive compensation. A rabbi trust holds assets to fund such payments in the event of a change in control, etc. Employer is forming a joint venture in which it will have an exact 50% ownership interest. A number of employees who have deferred compensation are being asked to terminate service with the employer and become employees of the joint venture. In ordinary circumstances, their termination of employment would trigger distribution of their nonqualified deferred compensation, but the employer wants to "spin off" the deferred compensation liabilites and transfer rabbi trust assets to a deferred compensation plan and rabbi trust to be established by the joint venture company. The employees will not be given an opportunity to do anything with respect to the proposed process (because of constructive receipt issues).

My question: does anyone know of an IRS

ruling or GCM/TAM which addresses a rabbi trust "spin off" to a non-related entity?

I'm grateful for any thoughts you might have on the proposed transaction.

If a plan is Top Heavy on 1/1/2000 and participant "A" gets 18% of average comp. as his TH minimum & then the plan is not TH on 1/1/2001 does he get 20% of average comp. as his TH min. on 1/1/2001 ??

Does anyone know if the IRS has made a determination on negative elections for 403(B) plans? I understand that in the light of the 401(k) ruling, it was being contemplated.

In 1999, the court and Plan approved a QDRO. Alternate Payee rolled over the award to a conduit IRA. Now the plan is being asked to take back the funds as a rollover into the PT's account - the original QDRO apparently did not properly divide all assets and the attorneys want it reversed. Tax avoidance is key. How can this be done?

How should these investment products be reported on Schdule H? There is no line item for them. Must you report the underlying assets of these products?

How is the rule of parity applied when using a 6 month service requirement? For example, an employee works 4 months and quits. Three years later the employee is rehired. Must the Company count those 4 months?

Also, is "month" a defined term? In the above example, if the employee had first worked 4 months and 10 days and upon his return works 1 month and 20 days, has he completed six months?

I would appreciate any thoughts.

Employer provides group term life insurance to all employees with employer paid premiums as part of ERISA employee benefit plan.

Employer provides supplemental optional group term life insurance to employees who choose the coverage, make application for the coverage and employee pays premiums through payroll deduction. Employer provides booklet called Employer's Supplemental Group Term Life Benefits which describes the terms of the optional coverage.

Employer is administrator ERISA plan with authority to interpret plan.

Insurance company is also administrator of plan.

Is the optional group term life insurance with premium paid by employee through payroll deduction governed by ERISA?

------------------

John R

I have given my nitice to leave my current job, and my last day is June 30. The 125 Plan Year at my employer is 1/1-12/31. The employer has informed me that the amount in my account on my last day of employment must be forfeited. I've spoken with several Human Resource professionals who've told me this is not legal. They say that i am eligible by law to continue to draw from the account until the end of the year. Who is correct? thanks for the help!

Is an employee who terminates employment with a balance remaining in a DCAP FSA entitled to reimbursement for claims incured after termination?

Does anyone offer, or know anyone who offers, pet health insurance to employees at a group rate? Is this a popular benefit? Any feedback on this topic would be great.

I am looking to benchamrk benefit plans with other organizations in our field and need sugestions on how to get this data.

If an underfunded plan is frozen, and 5 years later the sponsor wishes to provide an unscheduled COLA (flat % for example) to retirees only, is this permissable? The assumption is that the plan continues to be frozen (not terminated).

[This message has been edited by AndyH (edited 06-08-2000).]

if an employer goes bankrupt and a successor employer hires the employees to do the identical job, has there been a separation from service? Do we need to pay out the participants as a result of this situation?

the new company would like to assume sponsorship of the plan and not make distributions.

In 1999, the court and Plan approved a QDRO. Alternate Payee rolled over the award to a conduit IRA. Now the plan is being asked to take back the funds as a rollover into the PT's account - the original QDRO apparently did not properly divide all assets and the attorneys want it reversed. Tax avoidance is key. How can this be done?

Whatis a KEYSOP? From what we know it seems to be a nonqualified deferred comp plan that invests in employer options contracts. What are the advantages, tax and otherwise, of doing this? Any info would be helpful.

Our firm has assumed responsibility for a 401(k) plan as of 1/1/99. In reviewing the files for 1998 we discovered the plan was "Top Heavy". The prior TPA advised the client of that fact in 1998; however, the minimum contribution was not calculated properly - Entry Date compensation was used for new entrants rather the plan year compensation.

One of our staff feels that unless the client corrects the problem we will be held liable as we know about the problem. Others disagree with that position. Question: who is correct?

Also, another staffer feels that if the client makes up the shortfall (and includes earnings) by 12/31/99 under the VCR program, this will correct the problem, HOWEVER, they feel the corrective deposit is not deductible. Their rationale is that since the corrective deposit relates to 1998 and that year is closed no deduction is possible. Another staffer feels that if the 1999 contributions plus the 1998 correction are within the 1999 415 limits the full amount is deductible in 1999. Who is correct or is there another answer?

------------------

W.J. Parks, Jr., CLU, ChFC, JD, LLM

we have a client who after attaining age 70 1/2 started to receive distributions based on his life expectancy. three years later he married and recalculated the amount of his distributions using joint life payout. Was the 1st election irrevocable thus making the recalculation improper? If improper what do we do?

I want to access my Quantech workstation from outside the office but do not necessarily wish to use the software (terminal server) recommended by Corbel. Is anyone using packages like PcAnywhere, etc to do this? If so are there any limitations or problems?

[This message has been edited by Alan Simpson (edited 06-08-2000).]

A participant is charged a front-end load each time he makes a repayment on his participant loan. The question is, is this legal?

We currently use OmniWeb (Planweb?), a product of Pyramid Digital Solutions, to create an interactive website for our retirement benefit plans. Has anyone else had success with other vendors? I'm particularly interested in Quantech's web product.