Our firm has the opportunity to assume TPA responsibility for a number of accounts due to the resignation of another TPA. Does anyone have a due diligence questionnaire or other materials that would be useful?

Any recent studies or articles regarding trend for employee participation in flexible spending accounts?

Any pitfalls to be aware of when a company sponsors a cafeteria plan and the employees contribute to MSAs?

I know that the MSA contributions are not allowed through the cafeteria plan and the MSA can not be part of the cafeteria plan. I assume that the premiums for the high-deductible plan can still be paid through the cafeteria plan and the deductible the employee has to cover that is not covered by the MSA will be a non-reimbursed medical expense that can be paid through the cafeteria plan spending account.

Any other items to be aware of?

I intially converted my IRA to a Roth IRA during high stock market valuations. I read that if one reconverts prior to November 1, 1998, it is as if the conversion never occurred. I went to the discount brokerage office and requested the form to switch back

on October 29. I was told that this would not be processed in operations until November 15. I asked for a receipt. They didn't provide one but I took a copy of the form. If the stock market dips again, I may reconvert to Roth but wonder if the regs will consider this transaction to have occurred on October 29 or on the "process" date. Thanks.

We receive an electronic download for a plan that has individual FBO accounts for each participant. A participants account may have six fund investments with one account for each investment. The participant may have three sources of funds invested in an account (401(k), Match and P/S). Using the transaction import for transfers apparently requires the use of an account number. We want the transfer to be prorata across the fund sources. Is there a way to do fund to fund transfers in the import module?

I am looking for a good website for research, etc. for SIMPLE plans similar to www.rothira.com. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Just a note to anyone with a government plan in the state of Nebraska. LB 1191 has increased the state reporting requirements for these plans

I heard that the deadline for these amendments was pushed beyond 1999 to match the new deadline for the nondiscriminations rules but I can not find a source or a date. Does anyone know where (or when) I can find this?

I have a 401(k) plan that has a last day/1000 hour requirement in order for an employee to share in the employer's profit sharing or discretionary contribution; this requirement is relaxed to >= 501 hours only for purposes of passing 410(b) coverage. The 70% ratio percentage test is being applied. Plan A has 100 employees of which 69 qualify for an allocation under the plan's terms; the other 31 terminated in the year with > 501 hours. I believe in this scenario all 100 employees should receive an allocation. Plan B is identical but the numbers are 98/69/29 respectively. It seems that here the 70% threshold is satisfied by allocating to the 69 and omitting the 29 altogether. This doesn't seem logical. Am I missing something here ??

If you merge a D/C plan "A" into another D/C plan "B", does plan "A" have to be amended for GUST, or is it sufficient to amend plan "B" the survivor plan? Is there any instance whereby plan "A" would need to be amended for GUST prior to the merger?

Recently (mid to late Oct), a new section 713 was added to ERISA. Group health plans have to cover reconstructive surgery after a mastectomy (if the plan covers mastectomies). There are a few notice rules with tight deadlines.

In particular, notice of this coverage has to be provided to each participant and beneficiary:

(1)in the next plan mailing to participants;

(2) as part of the yearly informational packet mailed to participants; or

(3) not later than 1/1/99

WHICHEVER IS EARLIER.

Oh, and this notice must be "in writing and prominently positioned in any literature or correspondence."

My question: how are people handling this? For lots of companies, it's coming in the middle of open enrollment.

Thanks.

This (one person plan)exemption is not available where the business sponsoring the plan is a member of a controlled group (see 5500 EZ instructions). This appears to make the exemption unavailable to an individual who has plans for 2 separate sole proprietorships even the aggregate assets are < $100,000--or am I missing something? If an individual has plans for a sole proprietorship and a 50/50 partnership, however, could the exemption apply for each even though the aggregate assets exceed $100,000?

John Rossitter

Has anyone heard what the employee contribution limit will be for 1999? If not, when and where can this information be found?

A participant took a hardship withdrawal. The employer should have suspended his 401(k) contributions for a period of 12 months. However, during this tenure (minus a month or so), the participant continued to defer compensation and received matching contributions from the employer. What are the tax ramifications? How do I correct this?

Thanks!

I must admit little exposure to gov't plans, and I would like to know answers to the following: gov't DB plans typically use 10-year or more vesting schedules?; is there an example of a public-sector plan that does not refund employee contributions?; gov't DB plans are not subject to Minimum Funding Standards? and these plans do not need the services of an enrolled actuary?

I must admit to needing effort to keep a straight face while reading parts of the article, but its use of statistics and descriptions of "typical" plan provisions is disturbing. Please help me clarify this.

I recently heard a talk by the founder of a company that is trying to get alternative medicine into the managed care system. It seems to me that credentialing of providers is a big issue. Anyone with experience as to employer health plans covering alternative medicine.

Is it permissable to group employees based on years of service; e.g., employees with up to 15 years of service get x% contribution, employees with 16-20 years of service get y% , and ees with over 20 years get z%. Or can allocation groups only be based on criteria other than service?

I have a question on severance pay. In determining who is highly compensated, do I include severance pay in my definition of compensation?

If an employee has completed sufficient service to meet plan eligibility, terminates before the plan's effective date and is subsequently rehired, can the rule of parity be invoked to require the employee to resatisfy eligibility (assume rule of parity conditions satisfied). Since the rule is drafted in terms of nonvested "participants" (410(a)(5)(d))), can it be applied to employees who haven't yet become participants?

Or, in holland's words, am I being "hypertechnical"?

What do folks do with yo-yo employees?

Is it necessary for an individually trusteed plan to obtain a trust ID # from the IRS, or is it ok to use the EIN? I previously for a trust company which served as corporate trustee, and we always got a trust ID #.