What steps are needed to change the plan year for various welfare plans (health, life, LTD). Can you file a long year 5500?

if one wants to determine the social security portion of a plan benefit or compute soc. security directly what options are available? Assuming one does not have predesigned software.

if a lump sum is paid out, but is under paid by say $ 10,000, what interest rate would you use to bring the underpaid portion forward with interest?

when using the GATT mortality table does it mean you must use 50%/50% blended rates? If so, where do you obtain such a table?

if a plan fails 401(l) - does it have to be amended in order to remain qualified?

We have had inquiries from our participants on adding a self-directed brokerage option to our menu of mutual funds in our 401(k) program. Does anyone have names of companies which offer this feature in their program/product, and also any experiences they can share with us.

Is a complete restatement of a 403(b)plan required when amending the plan for GUST, or will an amendment be permissible?

If an existing profit sharing plan or 401(k) amends to SIMPLE 401(k), can vesting be retained for the pre-amendment discretionary and/or matching contributions?

Corp. owned by 2 brothers 50/50. Their brother works for the business, is not an officer, owns no stock, earns about $50,000. Is the brother an HCE?

If a Participant takes a required minimum distribution, does this taint the remainder amount preventing a Lump Sum Distribution of the remaining balance later?

I'm looking for some feedback on downloading trade information to produce qtrly reports from for example, Nationwide, Aetna, etc.

A not-for-profit hospital is concerned that its group of ten annuity issuers may not be correctly computing the maximum contributions that employees may defer into their tax-deferred annuities. However, before the hospital spends much money to investigate the problem, we wanted to identify the hospital's liability.

We're familiar with IRS audit activities, but what is the employer's possible exposure? IRC 6672 potentially exposes the employer to penalties for failure to withhold on overmax contributions, but only if the hospital was willfully failing to withhold taxes, which seems very difficult for the IRS to prove.

Is there any other basis for liability? Is anyone familiar with a case where the IRS has actually imposed monetary penalties on the employer for overmax contributions to a non-ERISA 403(B)?

I plan to retire on Dec 31, 1998. My organization has told me that I will not be able to rollover my 403(B) until May, 1999. I would like to rollover the funds by Jan 31, 1999 to begin accruing interest. If my organization holds the funds until May, 1999, they will accrue no interest for from Jan-May; therefore, I will be losing money. Could you cite any regulation that would help me with this concern. Thanks.

I believe this issue has been discussed before on the Msg Bds.

If a plan sponsor violates the "deposit deferrals as soon as administratively feasible but not later than 15 days after month following......" rule, how does the TPA calculate earnings on the late deposit? I recognize that the truly correct way to calculate would be to compare the unit value of each participant's investment selection on the date the deposit should have hit, against the unit value of the investment selection on the date it did hit - and the difference should be remitted to the participant's accounts.

Obviously for a large plan these calculations, and researching the investment selections of all participants (assume plan uses the investment company as the recordkeeper and an outside TPA does the compliance work) would be very very time consuming.

Is anyone aware of any safe harbor calculations that might make this process easier? I'm guessing "no," just curious. Thank you.

We are consulting with a Doctor who recently closed his practice and retired. His DB plan paid out benefits to all but one participant (not the Doc) following their separation from service. The Doc would like to terminate the plan, but does not want to lose the excess assets to income and excise taxes. He has been told by a colleague that there are hospitals and other organizations that will buy the practice for as much as 60% of the plan assets and merge the pension into their own under-funded DB plan. However, we have not been able to obtain any names to contact or any other leads.

We have our doubts about this strategy, but feel we should investigate it. Has anyone ever heard of any organizations offering to purchase excess pension assets? Also, is there any pending legislation that may affect the planning for the reversion, or any other strategies that we might be missing?

My wife was with a retail company. Sshe had to leave because she was downgraded from full time 40 hours to part time - less than 30 hours. Lost all benefits including 98 hours of sick time. I want to know if she has any recourse. Nothing in hand book about leaving and loosing payment for benefits. She is receiving pay for vacation time, but they will not pay her for earned sick time. Also I found out that the main reason for demotion is she would not run register. She could't. she has a problem with figurers. and they know that.

I posted this on the wrong message board before. Sorry.

I am currently diabled and it may be permanent.I was working when I fell at home and have health insuance through the company.If I retire can I pick up the companies health insurance. Thank You

We a TPA firm and currently have a voice response unit (VRU) for our Daily Valuation clients, but are interested in getting one for our Cafeteria clients.

Does anyone have a VRU for this purpose? What type of software are you using? We currently use Mayer Hoffman to maintain our cafeteria plans.

Thanks!

Travis Cornes

Systems Admin

Travis@rmeb.com

Rocky Mtn. Employee Benefits

I believe in 1996 the Federal Register published a list of those CPT codes that should not have an allowable modifier 26 billed (ie, all automated lab tests). There is an employee at my organization who now claims that we must pay for all billed modifier 26's. Has this law changed? If so, please give me the Federal Register date of this change so that I may look it up. Thank you.

What affect does the income inclusion from a Roth IRA conversion have on the taxability of Social Security benefits? Is the test eliminated after age 70.5?