For anyone who is interested, I have compiled a list of Web sites for state retirement systems, which you can access by clicking here. Is your state's site missing? You can let me know about it by clicking here, and I will be happy to add it to the list.

A Sole Proprietor has a money purchase plan & profit sharing. When calculating ideal salary, must the same compensation be used for both plans? Or, since the money purchase is primary, can a higher comp be used in the MPP, and the comp for PS calc be reduced further? Any software available that can run both plans simultaneously if same comp needs to be used? (Profit Sharing plan is integrated, by the way.)

The State of Ohio offers the Ohio Public Employees Deferred Compensation program pursuant to Ohio Revised Code 145.71-.76. The program appears to be enrolled and serviced exclusively by a national firm, via their office in Columbus, Ohio (Copeland Companies). There are currently 118,000 employees enrolled in the program.

Query: The Ohio Revised Code allows a state government unit to offer up to 2 additionl deferred compensation plans to its officers and employees. An Ohio County Water Authority has expressed interest in having my firm establish and administer a 457 plan for them.

1. Do most states offer a large deferred comp program such as the Ohio Public Employees Deferred Compensation Program? If yes, is it common for single government units such as a county water authority to also offer a separate program? I am having a hard time seeing why an employee would choose a separate 457 plan established just for the water authority over the larger Ohio Public Employees Deferred Comp Program. Also, with limitations on the amount that any one employee can defer, would it make sense to establish a second plan?

2. Am I correct in assuming that the Ohio Public Employees Deferred Compensation Program is administered exclusively by one firm? If yes, is this exclusivity in plan administration common for governmental programs of this type?

3. If I am interested in getting into the 457 plan administration arena, can I help the water authority establish a 457 plan? In other words, does a county water authority qualify to have a 457 deferred comp plan?

4.More importantly, can any qualified plan administration firm administer a 457 plan or must the State choose the plan administrator?

5.Are prototype 457 plan documents available?

Thank you for your patience in answering these questions.

[This message has been edited by Lisa (edited 08-30-98).]

Four small businesses exist. Three have pension and profit sharing plans. Those three understand they are part of a controlled group. Over time, changes occur in the ownership of the fourth business. No one realizes that those changes bring that fourth business into the controlled group. The fourth business does not have a pension or profit sharing plan and cannot afford the same plan as the other three. It is now five years after the changes which made the fourth business a member of the controlled group. What can be done to cure the problem?

I'd like to get a discussion started concerning Sponsor and Participant Reaction to the recent market downdraft. Maybe the current downtrend will not continue, but I suspect (and then again what do I know) the volatility will continue.

We have the opportunity here to get responses from a variety of angles - sponsors, consultants, investment managers etc.

Question #1 - What are participants doing in response to the current drop in the market? Are they panicking? staying the course? complaining to plan sponsors (of nondaily plans) that they cannot get out of their equity funds?

There is an article in the New York Times today (8/30) in the business section which quotes Hewitt Associates as saying they have not seen a significant increase in fund switching in their plans. I assume these are jumbo daily plans.

Do you agree/disagree with Hewitt?

Question #2

Are Sponsors doing anything special, e.g. communications to participants concerning the merits of long term investing, not locking in losses etc.? Are they considering it?

Question #3

If there hasn't been much reaction yet (and I'm not sure of that), when will it kick in if the market downtrend continues? Will there come a panick point when participants start to bail out of the market?

I hope we get lots of input on this - specific information, opions or just comments.

Looking for history of cross-tested plans. i.e. TRA 86 to final 401(a)(4) regs., information relating to the IRS's desire to disallow them early on etc.

Thanks

My client is purchasing the stock of a company that is owned by a conglomerate. Under the purchase agreement, my client agrees to provide the employees with equivalent retirement benefits for the next year. My client is not assuming the plans that currently cover these employees. If it sets up a new plan that will cover just the employees in the acquired company, can the new plan rely on the 1 year transition rule of Code section 410(B)(6)©? It does not appear so, because the regulations under that section seem to require that the "plan" which is relying on the transitional rule be in existance before the transaction, which it is not. If anyone knows of guidance on this issue, please let me know, or has reached a different conclusion, please let me know.

Can I amend a DB plan definition of Actuarial Equivalent (for purposes of lump sum calcs only) by using the LESSER of:

the old 417(3) basis, or

the new 417(e) bais, such that the latter becomes the only definition when the transition period expires?

I am a participant in a DBP as a result of a company with an existing plan purchasing the stock of my former employer. All employees were immediate participants in the plan, with our original hire dates.

Since that time I have left the Company (over a year ago.) I have requested a statement of benefits, and haven't yet received anything. Other employees who were part of the same acquisition were told they would not get statements this year.

Does that sound right? I'm concerned that I get something official from the Plan before I'm gone for too long. What legal rights does the company have under a defined benefit plan for annual notices to employees?

I suppose if all else fails, I could ask for a copy of the 5500 filing and related attachments, but does that show MY name and benefit?

Thanks... Peg

I would be interested in thoughts/comments on what software is being used - or does everybody just tinker with it on a spreadsheet!?

Company A was merged with company B. Company A's lump sum benefits were reduced because company B used Gatt rates and company A used PBGC rates. Weren't the employees dismissed after the merger entitled to lump sum under PBGC. Where can we find legal interpretation concerning this?

has anyone ever seen a qualified plan set up for a franchisor and franchisees such as mcdonlalds or burger king? any pitflalls in having the franchisor sponsor such a plan for the franchisees?

From reading the regulations in 401(a)(4), it appears that loans are a benefit, right, or feature that must be offered on a nondiscriminatory basis. The regulations seem to say that nondiscrimination is proved only if loans are currently available and effectively available. If my understanding is correct (and it may very well not be), you could write your plan to allow loans only to active employees, but then you would have to prove nondiscrimination which amounts to a ratio percentage test in which all terminated particpants would be treated as not benefiting. Is this correct or am I misguided? Thanks in advance for your help!

At a recent conference a speaker explained that the speaker explained that the match limit could only be calculated on the compensation in which the employee deferred, not the annual compensation. Our current research all says annual compensation but does not define it. How do you calculate the match limits?

What's everybody think about the possibility that 415(e) isn't going to go away after all, despite its scheduled repeal? (1999, or is it 2000?)

I'm supposing that with the budget surplus we won't see anybody step forward and try to get in the way of the effective date of the repeal.

I hear people say that a pension consultant just can't make a go of it without taking commissions or other fees from investment providers.

What's the skinny on this? Are any fee-for-service providers thriving, especially in the small-plan market?

My doctor has just declared me disabled and I am in need of financial help. I have gone to the social security and they tell me it will take 5 months before getting approved. I have gone to the TEC and they are of no help. I have a job to go back to but my doctor will not allow me to return for at least 6-8 months. Until then I need finacial help to pay for my bills and food and house. Does anyone know where I can go or who to contact. Any information will do.

A profit sharing plan has been amended for termination. The plan did not distribute some terminated employees accounts prior to the effective date of termination. Are these participants now 100% vested? or can they still be distributed and the forfeitures reallocated? All were under the $3,500 limit. The plan document has a cash-out option. The employer just did not cash them out after termination.

I joined an institution that had a qualified plan where shares of stock were granted to plan participants on a yearly basis. I requested a rollover into the plan which was granted, but was later rescinded as "the dollars that I was requesting to rolled over into the plan would bump others who had waited throughout the plan year."

I was offered a verbal option which ultimately I took as I thought I had no other option. One year later the company was sold and the stock sold for considerable more. I believe that the trustees of the plan acted irresponsibly and believe that I have a right to the stock as I had and originally directed the rollover.

Please advise.

For a company that has a 401k plan (with 401m company matches and after tax contributions) and a money purchase plan, which of the following "account balances" are included in top heavy testing? Are there any options?

1. Employee pre-tax deferrals (plus investment earnings

2. Company matches (plus investment earnings)

3. Employee after tax contributions (plus investment earnings)

4. Employee Rollovers (from a qualified plan of an unrelated company to this 401k)

5. Defaulted loans

Of course, the money purchase account balances are included.

Thanks