I read in this week’s Pensions & Investments magazine that at least one recordkeeper “calculates Secure 2.0 tax credits for new plan sponsor clients, giving them worksheets that they can give to their CPAs to make sure they take advantage of the tax credits[.]”

TPAs, of recordkeepers you work with, is this a common service?

TPAs, do you offer this service? Routinely, or when asked? Within a base fee, or for an incremental fee?

What are the advantages and disadvantages of this service?

What amount is $4,000,000,000,000 if a writer uses only the “4” and replaces the many zeroes with one word?

My employer is stating that since I am enrolled in the company 401k program with a company 3% match, that they do not have to give me any of the $14.00 an hour pension fringe benefit when working on prevailing wage jobs. The only way they will give me that $14 hour is if I defer to enroll in the 401k program then they will add that amount on to my paychecks. Example- my coworker deferred to enroll in the 401k program and is paid $44 an hour on prevailing wage jobs but has no money contributed to a retirement account, whereas I am enrolled in the 401k program so I am paid $30 an hour on the same job, then 3% of my check goes into my retirement account and my employer matches that. Is this the correct way that this works? They do not have to give me any of the pension fringe benefit if they are doing a company match?

I’ve done some googling and ChatGPT and seem to get conflicting information.

My situation is I am a business owner with a self-administered Safe Harbor 401k. There are (were) two participants, myself and a full time employee.  My employee has resigned and I’ve hired a part time employee, who will work less than 1000 hours per year, and I may hire a second (similar) part time employee.

My current Safe Harbor 401k states that employees with a year of service and working over 1000 hours per year qualifies for the plan.  
 

Can I maintain my current plan with a single participant (myself) or do I need to convert to a Solo 401k plan.

i prefer to maintain my current plan, if possible, even though I understand the benefits of Solo.  If I can’t maintain this, is Solo even an option, as it is unclear if even part time employees may disqualify me.

thanks!

Sponsor maintains 401k and 403b.  All employees in controlled group are employed by nonprofits.  Sponsor wants to terminate 401k and force nonresponsive participants to direct rollover to 403b.  Or alternatively to force direct rollover to safe harbor IRA.  Is force out available at all here?  1.411(a)-11(e) says no force out if another defined contribution plan in controlled group other than ESOP.  Is 403b plan considered another defined contribution plan for this purpose?  414 definition suggests yes?  It seems like a catch 22 - can’t force to IRA and can’t transfer to 403b as that isn’t allowed.  Maybe the 403b is not a defined contribution plan and so we can force out to an IRA?  But I can find no path  or support to forcing a direct rollover to the 403b.  Maybe a “transfer” where 411d6 is honored, but again - can’t transfer 401k to 403b.  Help…

I know this board is probably tired of After tax/mega backdoor roth questions....but here I go.

I'm an advisor who only does 401k/403b/Cash Balance plan advising.  We pride ourselves on our ERISA knowledge and everyone on my team has the QKA at least, but a client has come to us with questions that I wasnt sure of.  The TPA was on the call and they are researching but I thought Id ask this group as well.

The client is a young business owner (~10 employees)who loves after-tax/MBDR strategies. We have shown him numerous profit sharing plan designs, discussed the issues with after tax contributions for a company his size, etc.  His question as we reviewed profit sharing is what if instead of profit sharing he does $35k in after tax contributions to get to $70k.  Then can he simply do the $80k in profit sharing were showing due to employees as employer after-tax contributions?  Everything I read says after tax is subject to ACP, and the only remedy for after-tax is the owner removing their contributions, but could he instead of that just do very large after tax contributions to his employees like a QMAC remedy?

There are a ton questions I have that come out from this - who pays the tax, would this money have to be considered fully vested, etc. 

Assisting a sponsor that discovered that the 415 limits were tested before the final true up. The participants are due additional safe harbor match, that will cause more excess that needs to be distributed. Participants that are affected should have had after-tax refunded but have since rolled over account balances to new employers plans.

Would depositing the true up and processing the excess from the additional allocation be permitted since that is all that remains in the plan?

The only other solution is to issue the letter that they have to take the excess out of the current plan and then let them know they have additional that can be rolled over, which does not sound correct. Anyone run into this situation?

The 415 excess must be corrected, but the regs only address the order not necessarily what to do if the other sources have been distributed.

Is there standard wording or a template to follow to obtain the required written authorization to sign the 5500 filing on behalf of the plan sponsor/administrator?  

sole proprietor has not filed his tax returns yet (on extension).

wants to adopt solo 401k retroactively, and make maximum deferral and profit sharing contributions.

What is the latest date he can adopt and contribute? 

I'm being told that under Secure 2.0 he cannot defer after April 15. Is this true? (Getting conflicting answers.)

your help will be most appreciated!

Suppose you have a governmental 501(c)(3) 403(b) plan. They (the employer) does not participate in Social Security. So, are their W-2 wages considered "FICA" wages? I've never really thought about this type of situation, but was having a discussion with an old college friend where this came up. There's no actual plan involved - this is purely for sake of discussion. I'm feeling particularly geeky this morning, as this actually seems interesting to me, which is a little scary. I need to get out more...

If they don't participate in Social Security, I don't see how they could be FICA wages...

My client (a divorce lawyer) asked me to write a QDRO for their client who has a solo-401k plan containing real property. I advised a plan audit is needed because of entwined interests in the real property, and entanglements with other real properties that are not plan assets (and are in another state), as I'm not going to write a QDRO for that client until those interests are sorted and all cards are on the table. So, I'm seeking recommendations for auditors with experience with solo 401ks owning real property in multiple jurisdictions. Washington State or Virginia licensure may be required. Please send me a message on-platform if you have any names to offer, thanks.

For the TPAs out there, I'm curious as to what people's thoughts are on the recordkeeper landscape these days. Nationwide which used to be very good I find has gone off track since their migration to the new platform. From an admin standpoint it has been rough.  I'm trying to get a sense of which recordkeeper partners we should lean towards without changing too much. Typically have 3-4 that we use.   As TPA, we only do annual 401k accounting and mostly utilize Nationwide, John Hancock, Voya and July Services at the moment.  I've been doing work looking into Empower recently so it would be nice if anyone has any experience using them recently (I believe over the last few years their platform was enhanced as well). Appreciate any feedback!

I'm working on Form 5500-SF and come up with one clarification.

My plan fails coverage test and ABT and passing by combining another plan with my plan and passes coverage. In this scenario, whether I have to check yes for "Does the plan satisfy the coverage and nondiscrimination tests of Code sections 410(b) and 401(a)(4) by combining this plan with any other plans under the permissive aggregation rules?".

Another plan combining both ADP ACP and 401(a)(4) with another plan. Whether I have to check Yes for this scenario for 14a.

Is possible explain what is the difference between these two scenarios and give me link of documents which explains this scenario.

Thanks in advance!!

Imagine your client’s retirement plan provides on severance-from-employment an involuntary distribution of a participant’s account no more than $7,000, accepts rollover-in contributions, and otherwise is eligible for the auto-portability network the plan’s recordkeeper offers.

Imagine your client asks for your advice about whether to approve auto-portability.

And your client specifically asks for your advice not about what’s best for participants, but rather about what’s most risk-avoiding for the fiduciary.

What responsibility and potential liability might a fiduciary face because it approved auto-portability?

What responsibility and potential liability might a fiduciary face because it did not adopt auto-portability?

How do you advise your client?

We have a new client that is a partnership.  There is one partner who also has a corporation that is an affiliated service group member that has adopted the 401(k) plan of the partnership.  Proceeds from the partnership flow through to his corporation and he receives a W-2 from that corporation along with a K-1 from the partnership.

This partner's K-1 has $500,000 in box 1, but $0 in box 14.  The CPA for the partnership is insisting that box 1 from the K-1 should be used as his earned income for plan purposes - not box 14. This partner has a small W-2 and no 401(k) withholdings listed in box 12 - both of which would be problems unless K-1 box 1 is used as his plan compensation.

I was always taught to use box 14 from the K-1 as the earned income figure (which is then reduced for 50% FICA...) to determine plan compensation. Is this correct or should box 1 of the K-1 be used as the CPA suggests? I couldn't find anything to support the CPA so I'm hoping someone here can provide clarity.

For the 2022 Plan Year, ADP testing was completed and refunds were issued in March 2023.  The participants received 1099-R’s in January ’24. 

It was later discovered the ADP test was run incorrectly, and approx. 10 HCE’s received too much in refunds.  A handful of those HCE’s have since terminated employment.

This is a large Plan that is audited. How (if at all) can this be corrected? I doubt any of the terminated participants would want to re-deposit the money into the Plan. Would the employer make a QNEC of the amounts refunded in error to those still in the Plan? 

I had a 401(k) that I terminated on 4/15/2020.  I was the only participant.  I rolled everything to my IRA.  I filed the final 5500-SF return.  I shut down my business on 9/15/2021 and retired!  Yay!

I'm sitting here minding my own business and an envelope arrives from Schwab.  It's a statement with a Statement Period July 1, 2020 - March 31, 2025 showing that an old investment paid out a settlement of $95.  I had to call to get a check issued because I haven't had online access to that account since 2020.

OK, now I have the check.  I'm going to deposit it.  I just don't know where (IRA, personal account?) and how much paperwork has to be generated.  If it's too big of a hassle, I was thinking I'd just rip up the check, but the account would be open (maybe) forevermore.

What to do, what to do

Mine is a TPA firm, XYZ Pension and having Datair Pension Reporter software to e-file 5500 form. Now, I am starting another company ABC Pension. 
Question: Can I mention ABC Pension on Sch. SB with Actuary name and e-file 5500 for DB plan using the XYZ Pension’s software. 
Thanks for your time and helping me.

Hi

Just picked up a PBGC audit for the first time well in over 10 years.

Any new developments/things/pointers anyone with recent experience can share?

Thanks

I have seen QDROs that provide an Alternate Payee is prohibited from listing a new spouse as beneficiary.

Is this typical?  Is it allowed?  Can a plan refuse to allow this, and instead just say, "once the AP has his/her own account, he/she can name whatever beneficiary he/she wants?"

We would prefer to just divide the account and not have to keep track of additional restrictions like this.  But we will if we are required to.

Does it make any difference if the plan is a DC or DB?