An employer wants to pass along to the employees their monthly admin fee for administering an FSA.  For example, $150 annual fee per plan and $4 monthly fee per employee.  Can employees pay this fee on a pre-tax basis through premium conversion plan?  And if so, does this amount count toward any maximum pre-tax limit?

Can a money purchase pension plan be merged into a 403(b) Plan?

Firm A bought Firm B as a stock purchase.  Both had their own 401(k) Plan before the "corporate merger". It was determined that the Firm B's 401(k) Plan would be merged into the Firm A's 401(k).

The merger of plans was done in 2 stages within 2016.  First, new money (deferrals) were directed to Plan A mid-year.  Old monies (existing balances) were transferred over to Plan A before the close of that plan year Everything went smoothly except for one issue (of course).

Firm B had promised its employees matching on their deferrals for the entire year.  It was expected that deferrals under Plan B would be matched under Plan B prior to the move to Plan A.  I note this is part of the reason for "two stages".  Clean up all aspects of Plan B, including matching and testing on Plan B contributions, and then merge into Plan.  This did not happen as the match on deferrals made under Plan B was not made.

I believe one solution is that the match be done under Plan B as a receivable at plan year end, which is immediately transferred into Plan A accounts in accordance with the merger.  Of course, this raises the potential for another 5500 Filing (large plan), as well as issues that might pertain to "merger documents". Comments on this solution are appreciated.

Another solution I see would be to have Plan A match deferrals of Plan B by including them in the definition of "Matched Employee Contribution".  We would also need to make several other adjustments, such as revising the definition of Compensation and Hours of Service to include values attributable to service to Firm B. Since Firm B was owned by Firm A for the entire year, this is technically acceptable for Compensation and Hours.  My problem is can deferrals under one plan be matched under another? Timing is also a concern for the amendments. Comments on these issues are most greatly appreciated.

As always, I appreciate all comments.  Thank You!

This question is really academic at this point, but could apply to a future situation.

Suppose you have corporation A - a couple of doctors, or dentists, or lawyers, or whatever. They decide to go their separate ways. Corporation A will remain intact, no changes to the plan, etc.

Mr. B will form new corporation B. Some of the employees of corporation A will come over to work for him - or of course they can quit. He'll just establish a new plan. (it could be handled as a spinoff, but for  reasons not pertinent to this discussion, probably won't, and not worth getting into!)

I don't think there's any solid argument that these terminations from corporation A are "voluntary" so it seems to me that if they weren't already 100% vested, they would need to be. Any other opinions? Also, since a new employer is being established, seems like they are entitled to distributions if they choose, (cash, rollover to IRA or new plan, etc.)

Are people processing the PBGC filings on the PBGC website or using software?  We are considering using FT for this - we currently do it on the PBGC website.

Just curious if there are features about it that make it worth the additional investment (aside from the obvious, which is the pre-filling of all of the demographic data based on the 5500, that one I know about).

Will it show filing statuses, etc?

John Doe and his spouse own 100% of corporation A. No employees. They have a qualified plan.

John Doe and his spouse, together, own 40% of Corporation B. No other attributed ownership in corporation B. Corporation B sponsors a qualified plan. There is no CG/ASG. John Doe's brother own the majority of the remaining 60% of corporation B.

John Doe wants his PLAN, Plan A, to purchase some of the stock owned by his BROTHER in corporation B. My initial reaction was that it is a PT, but now I'm not so sure. Any opinions?

just received the following:

Dear ftwilliam.com Customer:

We are pleased to announce the release of the new pre-approved volume submitter 403(b) documents.

Got a quick one -

Doctor has had a DB plan for his one-man consulting business since 1/1/2008, and he earns well over any limits to worry about.

So 2017 is going to be his tenth year of participation (nominally defined as 1000 hours), and so once he gets his full 415 limit, the idea is to terminate and have him roll over a lump sum.

The 415 regulations define a year of participation as calculated to fractions of a year.  But they also say the year is credited if the hours are worked.

Should I be interpreting that to say it's a full tenth year of participation as of the moment he gets to 1000 hours?  Or does it mean he has to actually have the twelve months in the bank?  He might get to 1000 hours in June, but if we terminate the plan right at that point, I don't want the surprise that he would only get 9.5/10ths of the $215,000 limit. 

He'd obviously rather go for the full limit, and so if it's legitimate to count 2017 as a full year 10 before the end of the year, he could terminate and distribute before December 31, thus avoiding any 2018 plan year with its additional costs.

Thanks...

--Brian Gordon

Is there any way to retrieve more than 10 digits stored in my BA II plus calculator?

We have a plan that will be terminating and has about 10 terminated participants with remaining balances.  A few of these have been gone so long their unvested money has already been forfeited.

What happens to these participants upon PLAN termination?  Do they become fully vested and get their forfeitures back in their accounts?  Recognize that these forfeitures have already been allocated to other participants.

Have a new 401(k) plan and am doing enrollments.  This question came up twice: Both employee are separated from spouse (not a legal separation), they have not spoken in 4 years, one only knows the general where abouts, the other knows the spouse is in prison (domestic violence, etc).  Neither wants to contact with ex.

Suggestions on how to name someone else as primary beneficiary?

I have a scenario I found rather odd.  I have a small business that wishes to cover insurance premiums for one NHCE, excluding all others and all HCEs.  I feel as though I could get away with an HRA not integrated with group insurance/QSEHRA, but I'm just not sure if excluding everyone else will qualify it as a "one employee" plan.  The sponsor doesn't want the employee to be taxed, hence looking into a 105 plan.

Thanks for any help in advance!  

To avoid the independent qualified public auditor opinion requirement for the Form 5500, does the fidelity bond need to cover 100% of an employer's non-publicly traded stock held within the plan, or can such stock be considered as a qualifying plan asset?

SH Match formula is 100% up to 6% of pay.  Is this okay?

Is it just a discretionary match that is capped at 4% of pay?

The plan document states the employer makes the match on a payroll basis.  A Partner taking draws makes their deferral contribution one time at year-end.  Is the Partner's match calculated on their full year's Schedule C compensation?

Profit sharing plan assets are trustee directed and held in a pooled account. Terminated participant requests a distribution of his vested balance.  Participant completes application for distribution and sends it directly to the investment house.   Investment Company makes full payment to the participant.  What is the penalty, if any, to the plan sponsor for the failure to withhold the mandatory 20% tax from a lump sum distribution to a participant?

Quick question: We reconcile our plans on an accrual basis for Form 5500 SF reporting. Because of this we end up with receivable contributions from one year to another, typically due to pending payrolls. We have had a question come up because of this. Our sponsors will mark a payroll file (for example) as the payroll period 12/01/15 to 12/31/15, with a pay date of 01/15/16. The payroll is then processed when given to us, say 01/16/16. Would you mark this payroll as a receivable contribution for 2015 because of the pay period OR would you leave it off of the 2015 plan year because of the actual pay date to ppts of 01/15/16? Advice is appreciated, thanks!

Per the 408(k) IRS rules, less restrictive rules may be established to include employees and owners in this retirement plan (see below). Assuming that I start the 408(k) for my company on January 1st, 2017, and we just started a new company on the same date, can one of the less restrictive eligibility requirements be the following?:

Employees do not have to fulfill the requirement of the 3 out of 5 year working at the company and may qualify for the 408(k) regardless of the number of years they have worked for the company if they are part of the executive staff. The executive staff includes the following positions: CEO, CTO, CFO, President, Vice President, Director. All other employees qualify for the 408(k) once they meet the 3 out of 5 year requirement.

This seems like a less restrictive requirement that we can set up and allows us to fund the SEP IRA's for owners and/or executive staff as an incentive to attract people at those positions, while also not mandating that we fund everyone's SEP IRA immediately.

Employee terminated in 2010.  Employee will turn 70.5 in September 2017.  Employee contacted us, the TPA,  today to initiate a rollover of her account.  Since she is not yet 70.5 can she roll her entire account balance or is she subject to an RMD?  We cannot agree on the answer.

Any guidance you can provide would be helpful.

I recently drafted a standard QDRO splitting H's 401(k) plan 50/50 as of the date of the divorce (4/04/16) plus earnings through the date account segregation. H also owes W $24,000 to cover his 1/2 of the family debt and the attorneys want to take it from the 401(k) as he doesn't have the money anywhere else. The divorce judgement has been amended to reflect this. I figure I have 3 revision options:

1) Reflect a percentage greater than 50% that will approximately amount to 50% + $24,000 (i.e. 59/41, etc.)

2) Use #1 to come up with an agreed dollar amount and award a flat dollar amount.

3) Keep the current formula noted above (50/50 plus earnings) plus $24,000. 

I don't see a problem with any of the options, but wonder if a plan administrator will accept #3 even though it seems the most accurate. Any thoughts.