I have two sales companies that constitute a Control Group. Each company sells the same product but different brands than the other. Each company has it's own Standardized Prototype 401(k) Plan Document that is a clone of the other. The one company has 85 employees other has 50 employees. Must the plans be audited?

CPA has a Corp with 7 Employees and has a SIMPLE IRA Plan that he fully funds for himself. He is a Licensed Stock Broker (sole proprietor) and has a SEP with him as the only employee, which he fully funds. Both of these plans are funded to the max as if the other plan doesn't exist. Is this OK?

Back in February there was a discussion on this issue;in the under 100 life situation, it's not clear to me that plan term benefit liabilities in excess of PBGC guaranteed benefits are deducted over 10 years; does anyone have a cite or is the reference to Q&A #10 from the '94 grey book in that Feb. discussion the only guidance ?

A participant who is age 66 wants to take out a plan loan to purchase a new house. He will sell his existing house and wants to use the proceeds to pay off the plan loan. Is this type of accelerated payment allowed by the IRS or DOL?

Also, is the distribution of the plan loan subject to the 10% early withdrawal penalty since the participant is over age 65? What if he dies before the loan is completely paid off, will his remaining balance offset the outstanding balance and his beneficiaries will not be subject to the 10% penalty on the defaulted loan?

Long term disability welfare plan requires claim for benefits to be submitted to insurer (fully insured), rather than the plan administrator. The claims procedure to the insurer is set forth in the SPD. LTD plan document has "Firestone" language for plan administrator. If a claimant ends up suing both the insurer and the employer, does the employer get the deferential Firestone standard of review if claimant never made a claim directly to plan administrator? Assume no indemnity provisions exist in the LTD contract with employer.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce needs more volunteers to participate in its survey of employee benefits. You can help by volunteering to participate - simply send an e-mail to ebstudy@uschamber.com indicating whether you prefer to receive the survey by fax or e-mail. We will send the survey to out to you ASAP.

The survey covers a wide variety of benefits including the number of vacation days given, specifics on what your health plan covers, who is eligible for stock options. The survey is to be completed based on your 1999 year-end figures, either fiscal or calendar '99 ... whichever is easier for you.

The revised deadline for completion of the survey is July 31, 2000. As a survey participant, you will receive a FREE copy of the report (a $75 value) when it is published in the Fall.

We seem to be having a problem with non calender year plans

since the limit is now 10,500 instead of 10,000. Quantech is stopping the person at 10,000 instead of letting them go up to 10,500. I can see a couple of ways to catch it. We change the override in plan specs to 10,500 after the year changes, or keep the apply limits button on in the contribution transaction and when someones deferrals don't get applied, it gets researched.

Both ways are alittle to manual for me. Anyone have any other suggestions?

What is a tarsap? the advantages and disadvantages of using this form of executive compensation.

I am of the understanding that an ERISA covered 403(B) plan (with employer and employee monies) that is filing a Form 5500 (albeit with very little info) is still required to provide a Summary Annual Report. If so, what financial info should go in the SAR given that no financial info is required to be provided in the Form 5500. My particular case involves a 403(B)(7) custodial account.

Pete

I've got a case where the institution has a fiscal year end of 6/30. We check 415 limits for the fiscal year.

As I understand it, we must also check 415 limits on a calendar year basis for exclusion allowance purposes.

The question is, how to determine the annual additions. There's a 403(B) with 5% match and an integrated 5% + 10% 401(a) plan. The Plans state that contributions are credited on the last day of the Plan Year. In practice, contributions are being made monthly to eligible employees.

So, for the employees calendar 415 calc, would you add up contributions made during the calendar year, or the contributions creditted on 6/30, plus the deferral for the calendar year, or something else.

Thats in advance.

Does anyone know of a custodian who will allow investments in tax certificates and/or real estate!

Can A Governmental Agency eliminate the in-service withdrawal feature they currently have for after-tax employee contribution accounts? They are no longer going to allow the employees to contribute on an after-tax basis and plan to freeze the after-tax accounts.

Currently I am working on a project that involves employee retention.

The focus is employee work/life benefits. When I say work/life benefits, I am referring to benefits that are not insurance related, such flex-hours, job sharing, summer hours, things of this sort.

I am seeking ideas that you may have @ your company or that you may of heard of or experienced @ another or even ideas that you would like to see implemented.

Any suggestions or idea.

Thanks in advance for your ideas?

Do non-412 plans need to complete the Schedule R? It seems like all you are doing is reporting the EIN under which payments were made on line 2. There is nothing to report in Line 1 and nothing to report in Line 3. What are other preparers doing?

How do you design a bonus plan for non-exempt employees without having to include the bonus payments as part of their regular pay as required by the FLSA?

A plan sponsor has an ESOP plan which is failing the ratio percentage test for 410(B) minimum coverage. The plan sponsor also has a 401(k) plan.

When doing the average benefit percentage test:

1.Do the 2 plans have to be aggregated? (I have read in some places that ESOPs and union plans do not need to be aggregated, but other sources seem to indicate that ESOPs do need to be aggregated - has this been changed?)

2. What employees can be excluded? (Do all employees that have met the eligibility requirements for either plan have to be included, or is it possible to have some type of statutory exclusion of employees, like excluding employees under age 21 or less than a year of service?)

[Edited by John A on 07-13-2000 at 09:41 AM]

Has anyone given any thoughts or seen any articles on how the new law allowing electronic signatures will apply to various employee/spouse signature requirements under retirement plans?

if a participant receives treatmet from a non-medical person, (such as acupuncture)does the person providing the service have to be licensed or certified to make the expenses eligible for re-imbursement?

An employee has an IRS lien against him. He has $$$ in a NQDC plan. He dies and the NQDC plan has a contractual obligation to pay the widow a death benefit. Is the payment to the widow subject to the IRS lien? Is there any authority? Thanks.

Does anyone have any information on so call "Flip Flop Funding"? It has to do with the timing of deposits if the sponser maintains both a DB and a DC plan in order to avoid the 25% of comp limit.