I am a recent B.S.B.A. graduate from ASU and have decided (after continuous thought and study) that human resources will be the direction for my future. However, my next step to success is I need some information from individuals within the HR field. If you have time, I would greatly appreciate some comments about the following questions. You don’t need to answer them all, just any you have an outlook on.

Questions:

1) What is your job title?

2) What experiences help you be prepared or qualified for this job?

3) What do you like most about your job, your company, your industry?

4) What do you like least about your job, your company, your industry?

5) What are the most valuable skills, knowledge, and qualifications to have in HR?

6) Do you know of other locations where I can find valuable HR information?

Thanks for your help! If it is all right for me to get back in contact to you, please note at the end of you response.

Travis Glass

tg8520@yahoo.com

I am a recent B.S.B.A. graduate from ASU and have decided (after continuous thought and study) that human resources will be the direction for my future. However, my next step to success is I need some information from individuals within the HR field. If you have time, I would greatly appreciate some comments about the following questions. You don’t need to answer them all, just any you have an outlook on.

Questions:

1) What is your job title?

2) What experiences help you be prepared or qualified for this job?

3) What do you like most about your job, your company, your industry?

4) What do you like least about your job, your company, your industry?

5) What are the most valuable skills, knowledge, and qualifications to have in HR?

6) Do you know of other locations where I can find valuable HR information?

Thanks for your help! If it is all right for me to get back in contact to you, please note at the end of you response.

Travis Glass

tg8520@yahoo.com

We are in the process of taking over a case from another actuary. One of the owners has been receiving monthly benefits since 4/1/96 (his RBD). He began drawing the full 415(B) limit actuarially increased to age 71. Each year since then, the actuary has increased the monthly payment to reflect the change in dollar limit and an actuarial increase due to his age as of January 1. Is this correct, or should the actuarial increase for age cease when benefit payments begin (4/1/96)?

I've encountered a situation in which a participant received a plan loan several years ago but the plan has not enforced the repayment requirement. Accordingly, the plan has not issued a Form 1099R, either, but now would like to "correct" the outstanding defaulted loan.

How should the plan report the deemed distribution? If the participant defaulted on the loan in 1993 but the plan did not issue a 1099R for that year (or any subsequent year) to report the deemed distribution, may the plan issue a 1099R for 1993, or is that year closed (even though the IRS never received notification of the deemed distribution)? Do other options exist? Could the plan issue a 1099R for 2000 (the year of correction)? OR, since the participant has terminated employment, could/should the plan simply deduct the outstanding loan amount from the accrued benefit and report an actual distribution for 2000?

Thanks for your insight.

I would like any opinions regarding the following:

Employee earned $160,000 and deferred $10,000 from 1/1/99 - 12/31/99.

The matching formula in a prototype document is 60 cents on the dollar, not to exceed deferrals in excess of 4% of pay. The match is contributed in one lump sum at year end.

I would calaulate the match for this employee as follows:

$160,000 x .04 = $6,400 x .6 = $3,840 total match.

However, the employee said that her match should be $6,000, and calculated it as follows:

$160,000 x .04 = $6,400

$10,000 x .6 = $6,000

Since the $6,000 is less than $6,400, this is the total match that she is entitled to.

I have been doing recordkeeping for nine years, and would have never calculated the match this way. However, after thinking about it for awhile, it makes sense to me. Have I been thinking "inside the box" too long? Thank you.

Thank you for your help. I thought that might be correct but I wanted to hear from someone, like yourself, who was sure. Thank you again!

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

The employer is going to be the Trustee. We will hold the certificates for the ESOP as the Custodian. Is this a concerning? We are serving as Custodian because we want the business and the Custodial fees.

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

Employer who is the sole participant in a DB Plan would like to terminate it effective 7/31/00 and start a new one effective 8/1/00 because other employees will participate as of that date and he does not want to comingle prior assets. Aside from combining benefits for 415 is anything else I should be concerned with adopting this new Plan.

I have a sole owner/participant under qualified plan with a valuation date (plan year end) of 8/31/99. The plan has terminated and all amounts were rolled directly into an IRA after 8/31/99 but completed by 12/31/99. Participant/owner turns 70 1/2 on 4/24/00. Seems logical to me that I would use the 12/31/99 IRA balance to calculate the RMD for the 2000 distribution year, but I'm trying to confirm by reading the proposed regs. The proposed regs. seem to be mucking it all up for me. Am I right?

Profit sharing plan year ends 8/31/99. Participant turns 70 1/2 on 4/24/00. Plan was terminated and direct rollover to IRA of funds in terminated plan was completed as of 12/31/99. For calculating the RMD for 2000, do we use 8/31/99 plan year ending balance or 12/31/99 IRA balance? Any guidance out there?

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

LKP

Assume a blackout period of 10 weeks for a 401(k) plan conversion to a new trustee/recordkeeper (and assume that the length of the blackout period is not questionable, ie, that is was reasonable). The "mapping" approach is used for the conversion. Accounts are participant directed (except during the blackout period). Employee deferrals are withheld from employee's paychecks during the blackout period. What should/can happen to those employee deferrals during the blackout period? Can the employer continue to hold those deferrals in a separate interest bearing account (for its own account) until such time as the blackout period expires? Beyond the time prescribed by DOL Reg. 2510.3-102 (ie, at latest, 15 days into the month following the month withheld), it seems this would constitite a prohibited transaction.

I am looking at this issue for a client. The new trustee refused to take the employee deferrals from the employer during the blackout period. Thus, the employer placed the deferrals in an interest-bearing account (for its own account) until the blackout period had expired. Is this common/acceptable? It seems a clear violation of the DOL Reg. Though I recognize that the deferrals cannot be invested pursuant to participant's directions until the end of the blackout period, it seems that the deferrals should be held by the trustee in a money market or something of that nature.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

IRS Notice 2000-3 [Q-A 11] permits an existing profit sharing or pre ERISA money purchase pension plan to be amended to add safe harbor 401k provisions. Any thoughts on whether an existing money purchase pension plan can be restated as a safe harbor 401k under that question or under the law in general? I understand that the 204h notice must be given and any required funding be made.

I am confronted with a profit sharing plan with a frozen PAYSOP portion. What provisions of the Code apply to the PAYSOP? Are the provisions applicable to PAYSOP's identical to the provisions applicable to TRASOP's?

My company has been approached by a vendor to implement a program offering products and services to our employees.

One aspect of the program that I'm concerned about is this: the vendor provides each employee with a credit towards the purchase of these products and services. The total credit amount is undecided - it could be somewhere between $25 and $100 and the credit amounts per product vary. Typically, the program is set up so it appears as though the employer is "providing" the credits. This is done for goodwill purposes, building participation based on the employer/employee relationship. My task is to research the credit piece of this with the goal of determining if there is any risk of our company incurring liability of any kind. Does anyone have any experience with anything like this that you can share with me or would anyone be willing to comment? I intend to obtain a legal interpretation but I would prefer hearing from the HR community as well.

Thanks.

I've changed jobs, rolled my 401k to a Traditional IRA, then rolled that to an existing Roth Conversion IRA, all in 1999. The 401k had my contributions, the company matched contributions, and capital gains on both. Do I pay taxes on the total amount, and how is it taxed- as earned income or capital gains or a combination?

Alert! Do not trust your custodian to get the job done correctly or to make the proper notations for year or even valuation. This site has seen many problems and complaints related to custodian errors, delays and failure to complete.

Each IRA owner needs to be proactive about rollovers and contributions. In the case of rollovers, give your custodian a clear letter of instruction. Get a receipt. Check your statement.

Also... avoid the rush at year end and around tax season. Temp help is often brought in to handle the extra burdens and this may increase the number of errors.

I am displeased with my current Roth custodian and plan to move my account. I've heard that it is possible to use a Roth account for day trading. Is this true? If so, what are the necessary procedures for doing so?

Controlled group made of Holding Company and two wholly owned subsidiaries. The Holding Company has adopted the SIMPLE IRA and is making the 3% match for employees. Generally, with a qualified plan all three entities would adopt the same plan as participating employers and each individual subsidiary would make the contribution for their own employees. Holding Company doesn't even have any employees. Is this a problem the way they have set it up? It seems like each of the subsidiaries should have also adopted the SIMPLE IRA and that they should be paying their match on behalf of their employees. I seem to remember though that for tax deductibility purposes, a member of a controlled group may make contributions on behalf of other members. Any thoughts?

[This message has been edited by Dawn Hafner (edited 01-17-2000).]

Are there any members that use BlazeSSI for their recordkeeping system? If so, anyone interested in starting an unofficial users message board? Thanks.

We prepare a partially filled-in "fill in the blanks" format.

The ask for information on all employees as of end-of-year; we then determine eligibility.

For assets, in lieu of the client filing out a form, we also accept copies of monthly, quarterly or annual investment statements, and we then reconcile the assets.

The brick wall, as well as partially (or incorrectly) filled out forms is still a problem with some of our clients.

How often are fee surcharges used for poorly prepared data from clients?