With the new changes in Hardship Rules, is documentation from the participant required for pre-approved plans? Or can they rely on the representation requirement?

Thank you.

1. Effective 9/1/2018 company a acquired a group of employees from company b

2. The plan was amended to  allow the employees employed on 9/1 would be eligible to join company a's plan immediately.

3. Payroll is twice a month.

4. Due to some payroll issues, deferral withholdings began with the 9/30 payroll. Match is made each payroll period.

5. the plan makes a true up at  year end.

Question.

Must the plan include the wages earned for the first payroll (9/15) even though deferrals  did not begin until 9/30? Needless to say if the 9/15 wages are included in the true up, these employees will have an additional match due.

Although the document has an effective date of 9/1 since deferrals could not begin until 9/30 is there is issue if the 9/15 wages are excluded when determining the true up match???

H divorces W1.  H names children from W1 as death beneficiaries of his 401k plan benefits.  Then, H marries W2.  Three years later, H dies.

Does W2 have any spousal rights to the death benefits? I.e., does H's later marriage to W2 trump his previously having named the children as death beneficiaries?

My software is coming up with "401(a)(4) Failed; both the gateway as well as the ABPT passed.

How is this not passing 401(a)(4)

It seems that with the recent Abbott Labs Private Letter Ruling (201833012), as well as announcements from large recordkeepers (Empower and Fidelity), there is a lot of noise about integrating a student loan repayment program with a retirement plan. Now, we can argue whether it makes sense to do such integration, but nevertheless, HR managers are seeing the headlines and are asking questions. 

Suppose a company provides student loan repayment program under which the company will reimburse (ie - make a payment directly to the employee's creditor) dollar for dollar of the employee's student loan repayments of up to $1,200 each year. The employer would develop procedures to substantiate the student loan repayments made by the employee. Further, I assume that the $1,200 reimbursement would be taxable to the employee. 

Further also suppose that this company offers a 401(k) retirement plan that provides a 50% up to 6% non-safe harbor matching contribution. So for an employee with compensation of $40,000 and a 6% deferral rate, the employee would receive a $1,200 matching contribution. 

The company wants to manage employee benefit costs, so the employer would not want an employee to receive both the $1, 200 student loan repayment AND a $1,200 matching contribution under the retirement plan. Could the plan document be written to exclude "Employees Participating in a Student Loan Repayment Program" from being eligible to receive non-safe harbor matching contributions? Assuming that the plan's matching coverage is greater than 70%, are there any other problems with this approach?

My ex-employer had been bought out. They then vested us on our ESOP at 100% and paid us out 3 times the value. I did in fact receive the first half of my pay out but they then said we had to wait 9 to 18 months for the second payout due to IRS audit. It's now been about 21 months and we all keep getting the run around. Where can I get help? Is this IRS audit even true? Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance. 

Company terminated PSP recently and wishes to put in a new 401(k) Plan in its stead. Does the 12-month rule apply to terminated PSPs in the same way that it applies to 401k Plans? That is, are they allowed to setup a 401k within 12 months of terminating a PSP?

Hello,

I am hoping to find study materials (willing to pay a discounted price for used materials) to prepare me for taking DC-1 and DC-2 exams. Unfortunately, my current employer isn't a supporter of receiving designations, so I must pay for everything myself. I did receive an APA while working for a TPA firm years ago, but I understand how valuable the QKA designation is, in my industry. 

My goal is to obtain a QKA before this year ends :).

Any help would be hugely appreciated. 

Can an EACA arrangement be amended for auto escalation any time during a plan year or must the auto escalation be effective as of the beginning of a plan year?

It has been an EACA arrangement but did not previously have an auto escalation feature and they want to add one.

thanks in advance!

Dual entry, SHNE with profit sharing. for initial year of participation, compensation based on w-2 from date of entry. In reading the EOB, compensation must be based on full years' W-2?

If the beneficiary form clearly states the name of the retirement plan and the name of the insurance policy, can the one form be used? A client of ours was trying to cut down on making employees fill out two different beneficiary forms when the employee wants the same beneficiary for both. 

LLP with 3 PAs (1 for each dr, LLP covered shared staff) broke up in February 2018.  One of the drs kept the LLP and his PA.  Some of the staff left, as did the other 2 Drs.  At this time we assume those two PAs are still in existence (they were on 12/31/18, PYE).  All are still participating ERs of the plan.

When would the plan be considered a multiple ER plan?  For 2018, the year the partnership broke up?  Or for 2019, the first full PY that they were not a controlled group of companies?

If the other 2 PAs (drs) cease to be participating ERS, when would that "kick out" the multiple ER "designation" - in the year it happened (like 2019 for example, if the plan is amended) or the year after the amendment?  See where I am going with these questions?

TIA!

Just wondering how some of the practical aspects will play out with recordkeeping platforms, reporting, etc. For example, the SCP loan default correction. This is great, but suppose a loan defaults in year one. Deemed distribution is reported. 2 years later,  as allowed under the Rev. Proc., you "correct" this so that there is no taxation. Are you allowed to amend your previously filed income tax returns? How far back can you go to amend a personal return? What documentation is required to do so, etc...?

Thinking about plan design. ER has one owner, 40's, minimizes pay.  Would like to start up new plan and willing to increase self pay to allow for contributions.  401k, safe harbor are fine. But this approach does not mesh well with xtested design since ratios are too high to pass. pay too low for integrated formula to function too. thinking about other design considerations.

Suppose you have a typical db/dc combo but with the db 21 and 1 and the 401(K)/profit sharing immediate entry across the board. The two plans are a required aggregation group that is top heavy..Do the general rules that not allow you to restructure to avoid the gateway apply even if the restructuring is only to carve out the otherwise excludables….?  

A participant has contributed $20,000 in pre-tax deferral for the life of the account and a loan was taken in the amount of $7,000. The total cash balance in the participant's account is $15,000. Can the participant apply for a hardship withdrawal for the full account value since technically the basis is $20k? If the full amount is available for hardship withdrawal, is the assumption that the earnings are included in the loan asset account and therefore the withdrawal was correctly limited to solely to the contributions made by the participant?

I'm working with an employer who has employees who do not work over the summer.  They will continue to be covered under the employer's group health insurance plan but must pay for their portion of the premiums which would otherwise come out of their paycheck.  We are concerned about what happens if the employee does not pay their portion of the premiums.  My understanding is that there is a 30 day grace period under the ACA and that if the policy is canceled for non-payment, the employee is not eligible to re-enroll until the next open enrollment period.  My questions are:

1) Is it correct that there is a 30 day grace period under the ACA?  

2) If so, do you know what statute or regulation requires it?

3) Can state laws require a longer grace period (I believe they can for individual plans but can't find any information on group plans)?

4) Is it correct that they cannot re-enroll until the next open enrollment?  Any cite for that?

Thank you so much for any help you can give me.

Am I reading correctly that you cannot amend a safe harbor mid year to change In Plan Roth Rollover provisions?  We want to amend to allow for this to all amounts whether a distributable event or not.  Our document currently states there must be a distributable event.

Thank you.

Does a Plan need to actually make amendment the Plan Document to eliminate the requirement that elective deferrals be put on hold for 6 months? 

Are people responding to this? I have a client who has received 3 reminders to complete this "voluntary" survey?

Please advise what you guys are doing?