An employee decides to retire at age 65. His wife goes on Cobra. Does she get 18 months due to termination of employment or 36 months due to employee's entitlement to Medicare?

State retirement plan allows for purchase of service through payroll deduction on a pre-tax basis. The election to participate is irrevocable when made. Retirement system says that these contributions together with contributions to a 403(B) cannot exceed $30,000 annually. If this is being done on a pre-tax basis I thought thatit would be a 414(h) contribution and that it does not impact the 403(B) contribution this way. Can someone give me some ideas on this. If it is true can you explain and if not any code cites, plrs, etc. on this.

Is anyone having any Y2K related problems. We are waiting to hear back from Corbel why reconciliation is reconciling as of 1900-01-03. Are we the only ones?

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If a cross tested discretionary plan with a 1 year service requirement also has a K provision with immediate eligibility, does a terminee with 499 hours who deferred need to be included in the Average Benefits Test (if needed as part of a(4)). Said another way, who must be included, anyone satisfying the eligibilty requirements for any aggregated plan?

Question 1

If you contribute $2,000 worth of appreciated stock to a Roth IRA, do you avoid the capital gain on that stock if you leave it in the Roth for the required period?

Question 2

Can you make unlimited contribtutions to a contributory Roth if you are willing to pay a one time 6% excise tax on the excess over the $2,000 annual limit?

We anticipate making some money from stock market this year but won't know how much until the end of the year. Just calculating the salaries, we won't exceed the $150K limit but if we do make as much as we did from stock market in 1999, we will have an AGI between $150K and $160K. Does that mean we shouldn't contribute until we need what our real AGI is until the end of the year? Or can I contribute the $2K now and withdraw the extra contribution if our AGI does exceed $150K by the end of the year? Will there be penalty doing so? Please advise. Thanks.

What criteria must a NQ Plan meet in order to be required to file this form? Is this form sort of the "5500 of NQ Plans"? Why must(??) some of my NQ plans file this form, but not all of my NQ plans?

Any info on this form (other than the Instructions for Form 1041 and all the Schedules, as published by the IRS...I've read it) would be appreciated. Thanks!

Can anyone provide information or protocal for instances when holidays do not fall on normally scheduled work days? Ex. our company provides Xmas Eve Day and Xmas Day as observed paid holidays. However, the interpretation cause some arguments. One VP saying that we should only provided Xmas Eve off and the other saying it should make no difference which days the holiday fall on we should provide employees with 2 days off in addition to the weekend (4 day weekend.) Please help. Also, is there any place to find out the Sat holiday/Friday off, Sunday holiday/Monday off rational or tradition? Thank you.

10 year averaging and roth rollovers

The theme of an upcoming speech I am giving is Dispelling Myths About DB Plans. One of the myths is that they cost more to administer than 401(k) plans but I don't have any hard facts. Can someone refer me to any good surveys. I want to try to get a handle on both fees paid to outside vendors and internal costs. I am also looking for average deferral and matching rates in 401(k) plans and average investment allocations.

I'm looking for feedback from other consultants or IRA custodians about how you are presenting PLRs 199951053 & 199915063 with clients.

Basically, these PLRs allow a non-spouse IRA bene who was properly named as of an IRA owner's RBD date to use a joint RMD calculation after the death of the IRA owner even if the IRA owner had elected a single life calculation.

Currently, we are still telling clients that 2 PLRs don't make a rule and that they should stick with the consequences of the IRA owner's elected method or seek tax advice or their own PLR if they'd like to use a jt calc. Is any other firm taking a different approach? At what point do you think a series of PLRs becomes a rule that can be generally relied upon?

I always thought that they were the same thing by different names but now I am wondering based on some messages that I have read.

Your thoughts will be appreciated.

I just got a call this morning from an individual from the IRS. He was obviously speaking only in his individual capacity and not as a representative of the IRS as a whole. (Insert all standard disclaimers here. ) However, he was able to tell me that the language in Announcement 2000-1 stating that no W-2 reporting is required for a plan which meets either the requirements of, or the exceptions to (e.g., the exception for bona fide severance plans), I.R.C. § 457(b) was not intended to create any negative inference concerning plans which fail the 457(b) tests and therefore are described in 457(f). Thus, it appears that TAM 199903032 remains the position of the IRS with respect to plans described in 457(f).

Anybody know the current status of HHS' work on the regulations for the "administrative simplification" provisions of the Act?

I believe this is a simple question. I understand that government plans fall under Title III and many sections of Title II. Is this true, and what sections of Title II are state plans exempt from? (Or, where can I find this information?) Thanks in advance.

For calendar 1999, I have Company A and Company B. Owner X owns 75% of Company A and 100% of Company B. Owner Y owns 25% of Company A. Company A has a cross-tested PS plan since '94. Company B is establishing a DB plan effective 1/1/99. Owner X was a participant in the PS plan until he excluded himself effective 1/1/99. Owner X is the only employee and participant in Company B's DB plan. I understand that this isn't a controlled group for discrimination testing, but am not so sure about 415 and 404 limits. For 415 I understand that 50% ownership in each company would require aggregation of 415 limits of both plans. Is this true??? And would the 404 limit be the greater of 25% of elig comp or 412 DB contr??? or are plans not aggregated for 404??

Thanks.

Looking for a benefit that will put dollars on your company's bottom line? Pre-Paid Legal Services can do just that. Studies have shown that employees that are distracted by legal problems are less productive, take more days off and are in general less effective at work. A pre-paid legal plan may be just the answer for your company.

Hello. I am new to investing, in general. I am 22 years old, and want to start a Roth IRA making the max of $2000 a year in contributions. This is about where my knowledge ends. I see people talk about no-load mutual funds, and different places to start an IRA, etc, and quite frankly I am overwhelmed. I was hoping you guys could explain this stuff to me in laymen's terms as it were, perhaps even advise me on a good place to setup the IRA, low fees, good service, etc...

I realize this is a vague request, so let me ask a real question or two

- I see mutual fund places like Janus, etc, seem to make it easy for a person new to IRAs to start one, so perhaps something like this would be for me, but what would I be losing by going this route? I assume for it to be easy it must be dumbed down some, or perhaps higher fees, something... My goal is to find a mutual fund that will manage itself, rather than have me make individual stock picks, if that helps.

- What does it mean when a mutual fund is a no load fund? I get the impression it means that there are no transaction fees, or perhaps annual fees, etc.. If that is the case, it seems to me that everyone would just pick those. Are no load funds rare then? Or is there a reason I would not want to go that route?

- One last thing. Does anyone know a good url that might explain this? I look around, and I can find a great explanation of a roth ira, and I'm solid on what it is and how it works... I can find decent explanations of mutual funds, but they go mainly into details of how to deal with the taxes on these, which the roth negates as I understand it. I'm looking for something for a novice invester, that explains how to do what I want to do hehe, which is setup a roth ira that I just put money into, the mutual fund does all the stock choices, etc, and I don't get eaten alive by small fees because I was too ignorant to realize I setup my roth ira all wrong.

Thanks much for any advice you can provide, feel free to email me, or post here in the message board for everyone's benefit.

I believe that the Trustee can simply surrender the policies for their cash value. To the extent that the plan is participant directed, I would think that you would simply inform participants that life insurance is no longer an option and they must select another investment option for the cash value.

To sell the policies to participants you would also need to comply with the PTE class exemption.

A follow up question--some plans provide for "in-kind" distribution of life insurance policies. If you are getting rid of life insurance in the plan, can you also get rid of this "distribution option" or would that be a 411(d)(6) problem. As a practical matter 411(d)(6) lets you get rid of the life insurance, but does it let you get rid of this no "worthless" distribution option?

Did the Third Circuit get it right in Bennett v. Conrail Matched Savings Plan, 168 F.3d 671, 676 (3d Cir. 1999)?