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)?

If you have a 2 person LLC and only 1 member is actively working in the LLC, can you make a SEP contribution to the active member only?

I am looking for information concerning the

Employers Legal Requirements for sending funds taken out of a paycheck into the Investment Company. I know of an employer who tends to hold onto the money witheld from employees for a long period of time.

I have tried to find this information on the internet but I have not had any luck. A link on the internet would be very nice

Thank you in advance.

If a plan has more liberal eligibility requirements than 1 year/age 21, what other requirements must be met so that ADP/ACP testing can be performed excluding those that have not yet met 1 year/age 21 statutory requirements? I have read the regs and it mentions passing 410(B) taking into account only those that have not met statutory age and service but if only NHCE's have not met 1 year and age 21, won't I pass that separate 410(B) test automatically? Any guidance?

Any problems with offsetting a discretionary contribution (salary ratio, age weighed, tiered, whatever) by a 3% nonelective, such that all participants get at least 3%, but younger employees might get only 3%.

This would be in lieu of an A + B approach.

Obviously this would be subject to the general test, and the money types would be separately tracked for vesting, payment options, etc. I wonder about benefits, rights, and features, for example as a potential problem, in the case where the discretionary portion is available in-service. Thoughts?

In our State, kindergarten is not mandatory. However, the public schools have kindergarten classes and most people send their children to kindergarten. If an employee sends his/her child to private kindergarten, is that considered an eligible expense for dependent care flexible spending accounts? Note: IRS publication 503 states: "Schooling. You can count the total cost of sending your child to school if both of the following are true: 1) Your child is in a grade level below the first grade. 2) The amount you pay for schooling is incident to and cannot be separated from the cost of care."

Our private kindergartens generally do not separate the cost of "care" when billing the parents.

I need to find some vendors who provide retirement benefit analysis software for state, city and school employees for each state.

Any comments on adapting a self-funded medical expense reimbursement plan (Code 105(h)) to permit reimbursement of retiree medigap insurance premiums, only (not medical expenses themselves)? If you are aware of any other documentation options please comment.

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Section 414(u) of the Code requires a plan to

"make up" pension contributions missed during a reemployed veteran's military service.

I have a government employer who has a social security replacement plan (a money purchase pension in lieu of the social security system ).

Would 414(u) apply to this type of plan?

Thinking of possible conversion but not sure what I would gain as I am only 44.

My company has a 401(k) profit sharing plan in which employees may contribute up to 15% of salary with the employer matching $ .50 of $1 up to 4% of contributions. They have 7 investment options with a banking institute as the investment manager. While I have experience in other benefit areas I do not have experience in this new duty as coordinator of the plan for the company. While I research this area what are good questions to pose to the investment manager regarding the plan and the company's desire to increase the options? Also, what are best resources for 401(k) administration?

When my wife quit working in 1998, we moved her approx $3,000 401(k) over to a Roth IRA at a brokerage (no income or other issues that would prohibit the Roth election). In early 1999, prior to filing our federal return, I requested this be unconverted to a traditional IRA, and consequently did not report any income associated with the Roth account. It recently came to my attention that the brokerage never performed the unconversion. In looking at this website today, I noted the 12/31/99 deadline for modifying 1998 transactions, which makes me think it is too late for me to send a second request to the brokerage to uncovert the Roth back to a traditional. If it is in fact too late to unconvert, do I recognize all income associated with the 401(k) to Roth conversion in 1999, and if so, how do I go about this since it is unlikely I will receive a 1099?

Thanks,

ESH

I opened a Roth IRA account in late 1998 with $2000. In Jan. 1999, I make another

deposit to the same account for my 1999 contributions. However when the broker send

me the form 5498 for 1998, I noticed that

on my roth IRA contributions, it states $4,000. It gives me the impression that they

count the 2nd deposit also as 1998 contributions. Am I in the trouble of over contributed for 1998?

I did notice that, on the back of form

5498, it states it's the contributions you made in 1998 and through April 15, 1999. And

when I make the 2nd deposit, I did state it's

for tax year 1999.

[This message has been edited by fengchen (edited 01-02-2000).]

We changed claim administrators for our medical and dental plan recently. We are looking to handle run-off claims internally, rather than use our former TPA. Your comments and recommendations will be greatly appreciated.

We changed claims administrators recently, the new adminsitrator will not be handling COBRA and HIPAA for us. I am now handling COBRA internally and current have 50 active participants. I anticpipate having 10 to 20 Qualifyung events each month. What are you doing? Are you aware of an efficient comprehensive software package that is affordable?

Thanks!