How are people generally addressing the human relations side of cross testing? How do you tell one employee he/she is getting 3% of pay, and another getting 4% of pay when the employees perceive themselves to be in the same job. This is particularly sensitive when you are dealing with giving only NHCE's contributions (ie. the plan is not really cross tested as no HCE is receiving a contribution). We are using a tiered allocation in a profit sharing plan to control the accruals in a floor offset defined benefit plan. The offset arrangement passes muster.

Here is my situation. An employee elects COBRA and his new employer pays the first premium. Coverage is later canceled for lack of payment. 4 months later, it is found that we had received payment, but since it was from a company we do business with, it was credited to their account. There was no remittance advice, or any information attached that it was for COBRA. The employee was sent the HIPAA certificate of coverage when the coverage was canceled (so he should have known that his coverage was canceled). Are we obligated to accept that payment towards the COBRA and retroactively reinstate coverage? If the crediting error was ours, I would say of course, but in this case I'm not sure.

Thanks,

Karen Barnes

A plan participant is currently legally separated from his wife and divorce papers have been filed. The participant wants to change his beneficiary from his almost ex-wife to someone else. Am I correct in telling him that he must wait until the divorce is final to change his beneficiary without her consent?

He is also wondering if he needs to worry about her trying to claim or get some of his 401(k) money in the divorce settlement.

On Plan termination of a Profit Sharing Plan the Service is taking the position that since there were no contributions to the plan for several year there was a plan termination in prior years requiring full vesting. Has anyone else delt with this issue and possible responsces.

Would you agree that a control group exists under the following assumptions?

Owner A Owner B

Company X 100% 0%

Company Y 60% 40%

Furthermore, neither company provides any type of service for each other. Owner A became a 60% owner in company Y in October 1997.

We have a terminated profit-sharing plan and have paid out all of the participants except one participant who cannot be located. What is the proper (or practical) procedure for removing these assets from the plan so that a final 5500 can be filed?

How does the Jarrett Study impact the "minimum required distributions" requirement of tax-deferred retirement accounts?

[This message has been edited by Dave Baker (edited 08-11-1999).]

The first sentence of BPicker might be confusing. You can not selectively convert just the non-deductible amounts of any IRA. Lots of folks think they see a loophole to avoid Roth conversion taxes by converting just the previously taxed component. Not legal. Doesn't work. Forget about it.

Another common confusion is that you can do all these calculations based upon one IRA account. Not true. As BPicker notes, you aggregate ALL the various IRA accounts (brokerage, mutual fund, band, etc.) for one person into one grand total.

On area where couples can get clever is to convert the assets of the couple with the highest percent of non-deductible assets. The IRA tax calculations are seperate for each spouse. Such cleverness could cause later problems in a divorce.

I'm new on this site...I've looked around; I found the 6/22/99 you site--don't see anything constructive in actual actions taken. What have other people actually done? Cut a check and put it in a desk drawer?

My firm handles marketing and administration of 401(k) plans, currently offering a selection of nine funds to our participants. The funds are not publicly traded. We are considering the addition of some publicly traded mutual funds. Can anyone offer some guidance on a timeline for participant notification? Also, if we replace an existing bond fund with a new bond fund, are there special notification and disclosure requirements? We enjoy the protection of Erisa 404c and would not want to do anything to jeopardize this. I'm having trouble finding anything that references communication responsibilities during investment option changesand would love to be pointed towards a reliable source?

Part 2 (Not really related to communication)

Are there certification or licensing requirements for any of our staffwhen we move into publicly traded funds?

When converting to a PTO program, how are exempts handled? Based on FLSA, exempts can't be docked for anything less than a day. What happens if they request 3 hours of PTO from their bank?

Also, how effective is tracking unscheduled PTO by "occurrence" in managing absence control under a PTO plan? Thanks, POK

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POK

An employee's effective date for health insurance was August 1. (He had completed his waiting period.) The employee was actively at work on that date. He had not filled out an enrollment form. He has not show up for work since. Is the employee entitled to COBRA benefits?

Is spousal consent required for a hardship distribution from a 401(k) plan?

Employee terminates while eligible spouse is confined in hospital. Can plan terminate spouse's coverage (subject to any COBRA rights) without violating HIPAA's rules against discrimination based on health status?

I would like to know where to find the rules for penalty-free withdrawals from a Roth IRA for a home purchase.

I am in the process of terminating a 401(k) plan which had previously been maintained as a prototype volume submitter plan (the "sponsor" insurance company went bankrupt and no longer sponsors the plan as such). The plan has been amended through OBRA 93 with the last determination letter from the IRS dated 6/9/94. I need to bring plan into compliance prior to termination. Other than GUST, are there any other required amendments?

If a participant in a salary reduction-only 403(B) plan takes a hardship withdrawal, is the participant then prohibited from making any salary deferrals to his/her 403(B) account for at least 12 months after receipt of the distribution?

If so, who is responsible for making sure that salary deferrals are not made for the required time period? The employer? The custodian? The participant? The 403(B) is set up as a Custodial Account, provides that the Participant is responsible for determining whether a financial hardship exists, and is not subject to ERISA.

My client's former TPA did not complete the testing for the Plan year ending 12/31/97 until March, 1999, and the client had an ADP/ACP failure. Rev Proc 98-22 provides that the client may correct the failure by 12/31/99 through the use of a QNEC allocated to NHCE's, which is one of the prescribed correction methods under SVP for this type of failure.

My question is whether it is sufficient for my client to correct the deficiency under APRSC by depositing the QNEC by 12/31/99, or if they must correct under VCR using the SVP rules and request an SVP compliance statement and pay the reduced compliance fee.

APs are in pay status. Most of the company QDROs have language that specify payment to AP for the Participant's employment years. COLA occurs after employment ends. Does AP's portion increase when P gets COLA?

My understanding is that no audit is required for pension plans with less than 100 participants. (Any cites to confirm?) No audit is required in subsequent years unless the count goes over 120. At what time of the year is the participant count determined (end of year)?