If an employee has worked for two unrelated employers during his or her taxable year and had excess deferrals when those amounts are aggregated, does this only raise a personal tax issue for the employee (inclusion of the excess in gross income) or does it also create a qualification concern for the unrelated plans/employers?

Does anyone know of fund companies that do the daily recordkeeping, have 1-800 and/or Internet, and offer downloads to TPAs?

I know MFS and Kemper do. On the insurance side Nationwide, Manulife and Aetna I think do, but I would prefer to stay away from the annuity products.

Any other suggestions? I like these arrangements because it leaves the work that we do best to us - compliance, consulting and 5500 work, but not many fund families offer this type of arrangement.

If a plan participant finances her Lasix eye surgery, is her expense only reimbursable during the plan year the procedure is performed or can she submit each payment for reimbursement as she pays them? This would mean that she would be submitting for reimbursement over several plan years.

Will I comply with the separate accounting rules if I designate a set amount, $10,000, for example, to be given a charity from my IRA with the remainder given to my living trust on the IRA beneficiary designation form? Will I have to transfer the interest on the $10,000 each year to the other account? Will I be able to use the life expectancy of the beneficiary of the trust for the RMD calculation for the other account?

Many plan documents provide for accepting rollover money prior to an employee becoming a participant. Can the plan document or loan policy provide for loans from this rollover money prior to the employee becoming a participant?

Does anyone know of a website that would allow you to input information to calculate a MRD from an IRA or qualified plan? That is, input balance, participant DOB, beneficiary DOB, recalculation method, etc...

I have seen hand-written spreadsheets for this, but am curious if one exists on a website that could be plugged into.

Thanks.

A company has two plans: profit sharing & 401(k) plan. Both plans have different vesting schedules. The 401(k)plan has a provision for discretionary contribution. The company wants to merge the plans for ease of administration. Would all employees in the PS plan have to be 100% vested upon termination of the PS plan? If not, how would you handle the different vesting schedules. Any direction would be greatly appreciated.

Is anyone using Quantech with the Datalynx (First Trust) investment module? I would be interested in any feedback you have on how this works. Also, Corbel told me I would have to upgrade my Quantech to the Professional Daily product? Is this true? The current system is capable of daily and appears to allow for the investment links if purchased. Why would I need to upgrade?

I think we would enter full blown daily step by step, first taking phone calls directly and transfer instructions by fax, but I want the trading directions and settlements to be automatic from Quantech to the funds. Then later on we can add VRU and Internet. Any suggestions?

I need help finding a program to replace my client's former partially self insured program. The client is a small manufacturing firm in NJ with 16 employeees. I need a recommendation of TPA/reinsurer that can accomodate a group of that size.

Any of the Pension Services (CCH, RIA) should have the historical tables if you wanted to dig a bit, or you may try Social Security's Web site. ssa.gov

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is currently seeking volunteers to participate in its survey of employee benefit expenditures. The 2002 Employee Benefits Study provides valuable information on the total cost of employee compensation, including average costs by company size, industry, and geographic region. The survey is only five pages and is simple to complete with your 2001 year-end figures at hand.

Each participating company will receive as a “thank you” a FREE copy (a $75.00 value) of the published survey results, which can be used to evaluate your company’s benefit offerings. Companies may volunteer to participate in the survey by visiting www.benefitstudy.com to download the survey form or by calling toll-free 1-877-212-4535 to receive the survey automatically via fax.

The deadline for participation is July 31, 2002. Thank you for your support![

Last year I inadvertantly had a minimum distribution from a mutual fund transferred into my Roth IRA, even though I'm not eligible to make a Roth contribution. What is the procedure for undoing this mistake?

http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/stockoptionsandespp

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

David Wight

Stock Plan Anaylst

http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/stockoptionsandespp

Every option is an opportunity

An S Corp. that has sold all of its assets and no longer has any employees except for the owner and his wife (ages 60 and 55). The corporation has been approached about setting up a DB Plan for its owners and funding it in the year of the sale to avoid c.g. tax on the sale. Thee owners are planning on looking into other ventures for the corporation, but have no definite plans at the moment. The owners plan to work only for a few more years in any event. I have a number of questions on whether this can work. Among these are:

1) The permanency and subterfuge provisions in 1.401(1)(B)(2) and (3),

2) Whether an S Corp. can offset an ordinary expese against capital gains?

3) Whether there is a method to fund the DB entirely in a single year and still take the deduction?

4) The effect of the phase in of the $130,000 Section 415 limit based on years of participation?

5) The general advisability of converting c.g. into ordinary income through use of a pension plan.

Any thoughts, articles or cites would be appreciated.

A friend transferred the balance of her 401k plan (begun while working for a former employer) to a Roth IRA in 1998. Was this rollover taxable? Would the same transaction be taxable today?

My employer claims it is changing insurance companies for workman's comp. They want us to sign a form and provide our driver's license number to allow them to review our driver records anytime they want. They claim the insurance company needs this to determine if each of us is insurable. If we don't sign the form, they say they can deny us workman's compensation coverage.

I have never encountered this before. It sounds like a violation of my privacy to require me to give them anytime access to my driving records.

Any comments.

Is anyone aware of any reason that would prevent a life insurance company from insisting that beneficiary designations be in writing? Client wants to do "everything" online, insurance company is balking, and client is insisting that the insurance company cannot require a writing. Seems unlikely to me.

Employer is converting from balance fwd valation to daily valuation. They have several CD's with prepayment penalties that will not come due until 12 months from now. Are the CD's considered Securities for purposes of the prohibitive transaction rules? If not, could the employer purchase them @ FMV from the Plan so that the Plan could be fully invested at date of transfer.

Is this form subject to public disclosure? I don't see anything to indicate it would not be, but what about when individual participant loans are reported on this schedule? It hardly seems logical that other participants should be privy to that information.

Under the instructions for 27a (assets held for investment purposes) it states that participant loans secured soley by participant account balances may be aggregated as "participant loans" rather than listed individually, but the instructions for 27b don't indicate this.

The auditor prepared the schedule listing each participant. Would it be acceptable to prepare a schedule for participant disclosure that aggregated these loans into one participant loan number?

Any thoughts are apprecited?

If an ADP test fails due to an employee being incorrectly classified as an HCE, can any corrective measures be taken to restore distributions already made to HCE's?