The breast pump would be medically if the infant was unable to breast feed or failing to thrive. Then its use would be "primarily to prevent or alleivate a physical or medical defect or illness." and can be documented as such by their provider.

I am new to this site and apologize if this topic has been covered recently. We are evaluating plan design changes with the intent of attempting to increase participation in our 401(k).

I recall a year or two ago reading a summary of a study that outlined various plan design issues (i.e. implementing loans, increasing the company match, changing investment options, etc.) and the corresponding impact these design changes had on participation rates. Does anyone have information on this type of study, and if so, how it can be obtained?

Thanks for your help.

What are the rules governing notification of plan participants when a plan is transferred from one provider to another?

I worked for company A and had a loan against my 401K. Company A was going to be acquired by company B so I left. Because of the way the plan was written, I got to keep my 401K there and continue making loan payments directly to the plan.

company A was acquired by company B.

On 12/31/98 I was notified (via a phone call) that the plan was being transferred to a new provider, that I had no choice but to move as the accounts were frozen (the transfer was to take place on 1/5/99) and that I had to either pay off my loan immediately or accept it as a distribution (with associated penalties). I believe I was inadequately notified. Is this legal?

Situation: Fee agreement with client says fees will be reduced by 12(B)-1 fees received, then once fees are reduced to zero, any excess will be remitted to the plan. How can a Third Party Administrator remit these monies to the plan? If possible, how is it treated? Will the money have to be actually paid to the plan sponsor, then the plan sponsor pay the money to the plan? I understand this will cause the money to be treated as a plan contribution and subject to aggregate nondeductible limits and individual limits on allocations. Thanks for any imput.

I am designing a 20 hour retirement planning workshop. Included will be:

1. asset accumulation and investing

2. retiree health care, long term care

3. psycological impact of retiring

4. places to live

5. trust and wills

Any graphs, color pictures, data or ideas would be appreciated.

WalshCEBS@AOL.Com

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

WalshCEBS@AOL.Com

Barney Walsh

Upon receiving the Roth Ira during retirement, will I have to pay additional taxes on my money received? If not, could this possibly happen in the future? What part is taxed and when?

My wife and I converted Rollover IRAs to Roth IRAs in December 1998. At the time we were working/living in different states. How is it determined which state gets the roth ira conversion tax money? Does it matter when the conversion took place and when I moved out of the state where my wife resided? How does the 4 year tax benefit work if you move out of state?

Situation #1: C-Corp has only one "employee" who is also the 100% shareholder. Since a 105 plan has to benefit "employees," can sole shareholder set up a 105 plan in which he pays all his uninsured medical expenses thru the 105 plan and the corporation takes the deduction? My question is, is the sole shareholder an employee for purposes of IRC 105 even though he does not take a salary.

Situation #2: Same company, same sole shareholder. I know there is a discrimination test under IRC 125 regarding key employees. I have been told that there is no exception for corporations where the only employees are also key. E.G. the discrimination test would automatically fail, so this type of company cannot have a 125 plan. I have done a lot of reading and cannot find anything definitive that says a 105 plan will automatically fail its discrimination test if all employees also happen to be key/HCE. In the case of my sole shareholder "employee" the test would automatically fail. 401k plans have a caveat that a company of only HCE's and no NHCE's will NOT automatically fail the ADP test. What about 105 plans?

Situation #3: From the reading I have done, it does not appear that a 105 plan has any IRS notification requirement upon installation (e.g. you don't have to notify the IRS that you have installed a 105 plan). Is this true?

Any help would be appreciated, thank you.

Is there anyway to correct a failure to withhold? It appears that (1) the plan administrator is still liable to pay the 20% to the IRS; (2)the employee's 1099R should show no witholding and he/she will receive no credit; and, therefore, the IRS will receive 40% of the distribution. Or could the plan show the 20% on the 1099R and recover this payment from the employee?

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

I'm confused. With the 98 changes, is there still a five year period on converted dollars to Roth IRA that is separate from the 5 year non-exclusionary period based on my first contribution? example: If I open Roth in 1998 (with contribution) then convert traditional IRA dollars in 2000, am I penalized on withdrawal of converted money prior to 12/31/2004???

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

B Ryan

Some of the information necessary to perform the MEA calculation is not available to the employer unless the employee provides it (i.e., amounts previously excludable while the employee was employed by another employer). Thus, unless an employee complies with a request from the employer to provide such information, the employer cannot accurately run the MEA calculation and risks violating 403(B).

An employer is considering making a request for this type of information from its employees and telling them that if they do not provide it by a certain date, they will be prohibited from making further salary reduction contributions to the 403(B) plan until they provide the information. Can the employer do this? It doesn't seem right to me, but if this can't be done, what other steps can the employer take to get this information from the employees?

Any help would be appreciated.

I frequently have used the prototype provided by the investment provider, for a plan, for example, Aetna.

Does anyone know of a document service (and phone and address if you have) that can provide prototype plan documents that are not investment company specific (I assume for a fee)? I have a situation where the trustee is making all the investing decisions and buying individual stocks, bonds etc and wants to use a prototype.

Any help would be appreciated.

Has anyone heard any recent developments on offering a stable value fund as an option in a plan meant to comply with 404©. The fund would be one of eight or more options and prices and allows withdraws and buys daily. All options under the plan will allow at least monthly changes.

Can I amend the allocation section of a non-standard prototype for cross testing allocation and submit to IRS.

My income is under the $100,000 limit for IRA contributions and my wife earned a minimal income of around $500 reported to us on a 1099-MISC statement. I read somewhere that a spouse can contribute up to $2000 in an IRA for a non-working spouse. Can I make 1998 Roth IRA contributions of $2000 for both myself and my wife ... regardless of her income?

Is anyone interested in starting an informal virtual study group for the CEBS courses? I began taking the classes last year and would be interested in finding others on-line who are going for the CEBS designation.

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

Belinda Fulco

A plan's fiduciaries have decided to move the plan's assets to another provider. Some assets are invested in GICs, and a penalty will apply to some participants to get out of these contracts. The total dollar amount is small, but the employer wants to pay these fees for the participants as it is not their fault the plan is moving to another provider. Would these fees be considered fees that can be reimbursed? The plan document allows the employer to pay fees that relate to the ordinary and necessary administration of the plan. Is this an administrative fee due to moving or a charge against the earnings of the GIC, and therefore similar to an asset management fee of a mutual fund. Any DOL opintions letters in this area? Thanks.

The Small Business Job Protection Act added a new section under 457(e) which allows for contributions to volunteer firefighters. However, there is little or no guidance from the IRS on what type of plan could be used to fund the contributions. Has anybody had any experience with trying to set up a plan for volunteer firefighters?

[This message has been edited by rkanar (edited 02-16-99).]

Lets say you have a premium only cafeteria plan for converting employee contributions for health plan benefits to pre-tax instead of post-tax contributions and your health plan is an insured plan. If the employer pays the entire premium for highly compensated employees but only pays a portion of the total premium for every other employee, do you have a discriminatory 125 plan? Obviously, the HCEs don't need the 125 plan and won't use it. We could gross up the HCEs (ie increase there salary so that they must elect like the nonHCEs) but we don't want to do that if we don't have to.

the non-trustee partner would like to become the rep (and recieve commissions) on the companies 401(k) plan). The company provides brokerage/advisory services to their clients and this is the companies own plan. Are there any prohibitions? Is this a conflict of interest? Thank you.