Retirement payments commenced two years ago in life only form (actually a little more complicated - amount reduces at his age 65, but in any event stops on his death). This was done to increase their income. She signed waiver of J&S.

Now they may be divorcing - can she get a QDRO? (I think the answer is yes.) Or did the waiver eliminate that option? And is it restricted to payments during his lifetime? Or can it be done for her lifetime? (She is healthier and he is 61, she 54) 

I realize that as always the plan document may be more restrictive than the law allows but we don’t have access to the document at this time. Thank you!

I have a quick question. I wanted to pay off my 401K loan with an outstanding balance of $7,500, today 4/8/18.  I called my my benefits retirement plan on Friday, 4/6/18, and told me that my highest balance within the 12 month period from today is about $14,000? I get confused a little bit.

If I wanted to borrow, after I paid off my outstanding loan of $7,500, what is the maximum amount I can borrow? I have $110,000 vested balance including this $7,500?

Is it $50,000 less the highest loan balance of $14,000 in a 12 month period?, even though I will fully paid the $7,500? which is $36,000? or $50,000? or $42,500? (ASSUMING this $7,500 is fully paid)

Can someone please help me figure out? Because the plan administrator whom I talked to can't explain it fully to me.

I appreciate any help, please.

Thanks,

Mareil

What is my recourse if I disagree with the QDRO proposed by my ex-spouse?  Do I have to sign it?  Can I strike through the part that says "Consented to By" under the signature line?  If I don't sign, or if I strike through, can I be held in contempt?  What recourse do I have?

Curious for thoughts on this issue.  Due to payroll issue for small group of participants, the employer failed to apply 401(k) elective deferrals for a pay period which included both regular pay checks plus annual bonus payments from 2017.  As a result, participants failed to have 401(k) deferrals taken out of bonus payments (some of which are relatively significant portion of regular pay).  Employer realized the mistake shortly after it happened and corrected to ensure that regular elective deferrals were being deducted by next pay period.

Question, can the employer apply the 0% QNEC provisions under 2015-28 to the missed annual bonus deferrals as well as regular pay (assuming notice and other requirements are satisfied).  Piece that I am worried about is requirement that correct / regular deferrals start back within set timeframe.  In this case, the elective deferral issues have been corrected and regular deferrals from pay started back the next pay period.  Seems that should be fine for using 0% QNEC for the missed regular pay amounts but does same thing apply to the one-time bonus payment as well.  There are no other bonus payment deferrals to start back in same way regular pay deferrals start back.  Although seems same general philosophy should apply here for the most part in that participants will have plenty of time to up their deferral elections from regular pay to make up for the missed deferral on the bonus amounts.  It's just that they will have to increase regular deferrals by a much higher amount to make up for the missed deferral on the bonus checks.

My employer (state of California) has a policy ( that they say they will not change) of cashing out credit card tips on a daily basis to employees.  As such we do not have the opportunity of deferring that income into the 401(k) plan.  Try as I might I cannot find any law that requires the employer to leave the tips on the paycheck if requested by the employee.  It seems to me that this would violate the definition of compensation and would put their safe harbor 401(k) plan in violation.  Any help is greatly appreciated.  Thanks in advance

This question relates to the recharacterization of Pre-Tax Deferrals to After-Tax Contributions to correct an ADP test violation. Treas. Reg. Section 1.401(k)-2(b)(3)(ii) states that recharacterized excess contributions will be includible in the HCE's taxable income "as if such amounts were distributed" under the regulations applicable to distributions of excess ADP amounts.  Does this require that recharacterized excess contribution must be adjusted for allocable earnings like in an actual corrective distribution would be, i.e., recharacterized contributions along with earnings reported on 1099-R, etc.? My understanding is that when recharacterizing correction option used, allocable earnings are not taken into account, i.e., recharacterized amount (and thus taxable amount reported on 1099-R, etc.) equals just the actual excess contribution without earnings. Any insight would be appreciated.

Apologies if this has already been discussed, I searched and could not find anything on point...

Employer offers voluntary life insurance with premiums based on age bands. Without realizing it, they have been administering the plan such that premiums automatically increased mid year when a participant reached a new age band (i.e. 40th birthday).  A couple questions -

1) Is this practice consistent with 26 CFR 1.125-4(f)(2)(i) below (if plan document allows)?  

(i)Automatic changes. If the cost of a qualified benefits plan increases (or decreases) during a period of coverage and, under the terms of the plan, employees are required to make a corresponding change in their payments, the cafeteria plan may, on a reasonable and consistent basis, automatically make a prospective increase (or decrease) in affected employees' elective contributions for the plan.

2) If it is permissible under the regs (if plan document allows), but plan document does not currently allow, can the plan document be amended retroactively to correct?

Thanks

I don't really know beans about these. Had a question about such a plan that supposedly utilizes a standardized prototype - haven't seen a document so I can't say. I was able to look up the 5500 form, and the Plan Characteristics Codes do not indicate a pre-approved document is being used.

My general question is this: (I haven't looked at LRMS on this, by the way) - do you know, offhand, if a "normal - whatever that is" multiemployer 401(k) plan would require special multiemployer language, or can it use "regular" plan language? Seems like there would have to be some sort of special multiemployer language.

I'm working with a plan that is considering implementing a QACA SH match on 1/1/2019, but they would also like to match additional contributions over the QACA match. Specifically, they want to match 50% of contributions on deferrals between 7-10%  - auto escalating up to 10% using the QACA AE provision. They want to try and get total employee contributions over 15%, but encourage it with the discretionary match over the QACA formula. 

is the discretionary match subject only to ACP? are there other considerations with offering this additional match above the SH match limit? any help would be appreciated. 

I'm sure this has been asked and answered, but I can't lay my eyes on it.  Owner-Participant of 401(k) Profit-Sharing plan has to take an RMD.  He has 100k in the pooled profit-sharing account and 50k in FBO 401k account.  Isn't this ONE retirement plan and RMD can come from either/both accounts?

I know you cannot amend the allocation methodology once someone has satisfied the accrual requirements for a particular year.  In this case, there is a 1000 hour requirement for accrual of the NE.  I thought there was guidance issued by the IRS about 6 - 8 year ago where they specified that if the amendment was done by May 15th (Calendar year plan), the amendment was permissible even if someone had worked more than 1000 hours.  I cannot find anything to support this now.  Does this sound familiar to anyone?  

A new client of mine worked many years for the FAA and was covered by FERS. Under the property settlement, the ex spouse receives 1/3 of the monthly benefit under the pension program and 1/2 of the thrift savings plan. Are two COAPs required or can both benefits be included in one COAP?  Thanks!

A CB/DC plan passes coverage using the ratio percentage test. For my 401(a)(4) testing, some rate groups are less than 70%, so for rate group testing I need the average benefits test to pass. Can the average benefits test pass on an equivalent contributions basis, while the  a4 rate group testing is being done on a benefits basis?  

Does anybody know if there is a problem taking a hardship for elective surgery aka cosmetic surgery.   We have a participant who wants a hardship withdrawal for surgery that is classified as cosmetic.  However, after hearing the facts - it really is more preventive.  They have submitted the surgeon's estimate as proof of the amount requested.  Thoughts/comments appreciated.

Thanks

I have a deceased participant, no designated beneficiary, and no spouse/child/parent.  We have been making RMD payments to the Estate for several years, and the participant’s brother is the executor (and plan trustee), so he gets the RMD checks and deposits to an estate account.  I should probably say this is for a qualified retirement plan, not an IRA.

The Plan is now terminating, so the financial advisor is looking to help him roll over the full balance , but is having trouble with what type of rollover account is acceptable (his own firm is questioning).  Most literature indicates that non-spousal beneficiaries may only roll to inherited IRA.  How does one establish an "inherited" IRA when no designated beneficiaries exist in the first place?

Thanks for any input!

How do you interpret the last day allocation condition? The IRS language states that you should be employed on the last day of the plan year, which I believe can be interpreted 2 different ways:

1) You should be employed as of the END of the last day.

2) You should be employed during any part of the last day.

So, if someone was terminated on 12/31/2017, do they receive a contribution that has such allocation condition. The software we use would not allocate a contribution to a participant terminated on 12/31. However, I have seen some responses on the forum that state that the participant would be entitled to the contribution. Is there any additional guidance on this from the IRS?

Can a participant rollover their entire balance to an IRA and then take their RMD from the IRA? 

  I told the participant they have to take their RMD and then roll over the rest and the participant is adamant that he is not taking a cash distribution from the retirement plan.  I had thought that the RMD must be taken first and the remaining could be rolled over to the IRA.   He even said he called the IRS and they told him he did not have to take the RMD from the Retirement plan.   Maybe I've been misinformed all these years?  

In a sane world, I would never ask this question, but..

This plan has been filing 5500-EZs for years.  This year, our firm has elected to change to filing the one-person version of the 5500-SF for better tracking, and I'm wondering if we should be checking the "first return/report" box on Line B because this is the first filing with EFAST as opposed to filing with the IRS all the previous years.  Any thoughts, experiences, anecdotes...?

Client had decided to terminate its Multiple Employer Plan which has been undergoing a DOL Audit for 2 years.  Reason for terminating is unrelated to the audit.  Is it advisable to proceed with termination during an open audit?  Any potential ugliness if proceeding before the audit is closed?

A plan excludes unions and has a last day of the plan year allocation requirement for profit sharing contributions.  An employee enters the plan, but later during the year changes job to a union position.

Can the plan require a participant to be an eligible employee on the last day of the year to be eligible for an allocation, or is that limited to employment on last day of the year?