I have converted two IRAs to Roth IRAs, each at a different financial institution. One IRA was a traditional contributory IRA with both qualified and non-qualified contribtions. The other IRA was an ESOP (employee stock ownership distribution). I have transferred the ESOP Roth to the other financial institution and combined it with the other Roth.

Will there be any IRS complications from having combined these two different types of Roth conversions? The institution where I have combined them (Charles Schwab) said this was OK to do.

Thank you.

What typically are the benefits of a Church Plan?

What specific types of programs are you refering to - Dependent Care Assitance? Adoption Assistance?

Recently, my previous employer was acquired by another company. COBRA continuees were not notified of the plan conversion and some received an invoice in the mail charging almost 3 times more than the previous plan charged, this is how they found out that the plan was changing.

Can you help me identify the rights COBRA continuees have in this scenario? Thank you.

[This message has been edited by VFernandez (edited 05-19-99).]

may a participant make a distribution from his 401k plan after he reaches normal retirement age but is still working?

what if the plan doesn't allow for pre-retirement distributions (normally 59 1/2)?

The plan sponsor of a DB plan that currently only covers the sole prop owner wants to transfer a mutual fund into the plan in order to satisfy the minimum funding requirements for 1998. Is this a prohibited transaction as laid out in the Supreme Court ruling of IRS v. Keystone. This case involved truck terminals and property in Key West. This mutual fund is highly liquid. To me this transfer of the mutual fund would be a prohibited transaction as described in PWBA Interpretive Bulletin 94-3. I cannot believe that I have never encountered this situation before.

Is there any federal law which requires that maternity benefits be included in a group health plan?

I am new to this area so forgive me for asking fundamental questions but...under ERISA, what is the definition of a trustee? Under a self-funded plan, is the trustee always the employer? or the plan administrator? or both? Can a trustee be something or someone else than these two entities?

I would be greatly appreciative if a citation could be provided.

Our 401k plan includes a company stock fund. In voting the shares, the plan document specifies that the trustee will vote the share in accordance with participant instructions. The plan document is silent on what is to be done for shares of stock where no voting instructions have been provided. Is there a problem with instructing the trustee to vote these remaining shares proportionally in accordance with the instructions received? Should the shares be unvoted?

Has anyone seen a sample 401(a) that is written specifically as a governmental plan without all the ERISA language? I have the list of what is applicable and what is not, but it would be nice to see it all in one document.

Client has assets as follows:

IRA 1,000,000

House 400,000

Lots, cash 200,000

Total Assets $ 1,600,000

This is a married couple, community property. When the first spouse dies, which assets would you put into the Bypass trust?

If it is the house, the opportunity to not pay income tax on gain at sale is lost.

If it is the IRA - I didn't think the IRA could be put into a trust because it was already a trust. Wrong? And if the trust is named as beneficiary what are the consequences?

How would you fund this bypass trust? Or what steps would you take now to insure that it could be funded properly when the time comes?

Appreciate any comments.

This may be more of an administrative question than a Quantech question, but who better to answer than Quantech users.

In an ANNUAL money purchase plan, an employer makes a quarterly contribution for eligible payroll. The plan has a provision that you must be employed on the last day of the plan year in order to receive a contribution. The employer contributes all year for employees that are not employed on the last day of the plan year and is not allocated a contribution. What happens to those monies? Do they just appear on the plan's financials as over-contributions? Are they returned to the employer? Do most employers keep track and not contribute for those? Is the Quantech "Suspense" account utilized for these types monies. Should these monies be included in the allocation of interest?

If EAP benefits are considered medical benefits, are they portable? Have smaller employers been receptive to this portability (from job to job and from job to home)? How are EAP "benefits" funded when they are subject to COBRA?

Does anyone know the details of IBM's new cash balance plan. Also, does anyone know where I could get a copy of that plan?

The notice and consent typically do not appy if a participant's vested balance in under $5,000. However Treas. Reg 1.411(a)-11©(3) and 1.417(e)-a(B)(2)(i) specifies that if a participant took a partial distribution when the vested balance was over $5,000 his vested benefit is deemed to exceed %5,000 for all future distributions to determine whether the notice and consent requirements apply.

I've recently seen regulations that propose to eliminate this 'lookback' process. Have these regs been passed?

I have an employee who insists that he should be reimbursed for services that were incurred before he became our employee. He has asked that I point to the section of the IRC that prohibits this. My position is that allowing reimbursement for claims incurred prior to enrollment would eliminate the required "risk" in participation, making it ineligible for pre-tax status. Is there anything else I can refer to?

An employer established a new cafeteria plan (plan 501) effective 1/1/94. In 1996 the employer decided to change insurance carriers for 1997 and succeeding plan years. The insurance company drew up a new plan document, showing 1/1/97 as the effective date and 1997 as the first plan year. The new plan document contained no plan number. The employer continued to file 5500 C/R in 1997, using 501 as the plan number and 1/1/94 as the plan's effective date. What can or should be done to cure this situation?

Company has a nonaccount balance nonqualified SERP where participant is vested after 10 years of service. No FICA was withheld during those years of service. From the period 1993-1996, several participants began to receive annuity payments when they retired and FICA was withheld from the annuitized amount each year they received the annuity. Company should have withheld all of the FICA at once by calculating the present value of the annuity at retirement. Many of the participants had offsetting income at that time so that only the HI portion would have been taxable. May Company request refund for FICA that was overwithheld? What authority in the regulations?

I am working of implementing a STD policy (we currently only offer LTD after a 90 day wait) and am looking for typical plan designs. Can you help by sharing how your plan operates?

Plan A covers all employees of member A of a controlled group (plan does not apply any minimum age and service requirement). Plan B covers all employees of member B of the same controlled group. Plan B' employees must satisfy the minimum age and service requirement of 21 years and one year of service. For the 410(B) minimum coverage ratio percentage testing, are any employees excluded from testing? Cites?