If a traditional, frozen DB plan was timely amended in 2012/13 for 436/MAP-21/PRA-210 (Basically IRS Notice 2011-96 stuff) and hasn't made any discretionary amendments since, are there any required amendments that must be adopted now if plan is currently terminating? I don't think so, but maybe I'm missing something...

Thanks.

Employee A received a profit sharing contribution in 2012. In 2013 the employee terminated employment 0% vested. She only had 1 YOS. Plan forfeits her unvested balance as of 12/31/13.

Employee A is rehired on July 15, 2015 and is still employed as of 12/31/15. Employee A is not entitled to a profit sharing contribution as she only worked 528 hours and plans requires 1000 hours for contribution.

Should the unvested funds be restated as of 12/31/15? If so, how is that done. Just an FYI, the profit sharing funds are pooled (employer directed). If not, when must they be restated?

One of our clients is a large multi-employer profit sharing plan. Participants come and go all the time in this plan, but many times simply drop off the radar screen indefinitely. My questions are,

• Does the plan have to continue to attempt to deliver statements every quarter even though statements have come back as undeliverable for many many quarters?
• Is there some obligation to use a locator service to try and get a valid mailing address?

This would be with respect to participants that are not subject to force out distributions.

Due to bad information received from our client's accountant, we incorrectly included an insurance policy in the PSP trust accounting (and Schedule I) for 2011-2014. This policy was segregated from all other assets and was entirely part of the owner's account balance; NO OTHER PARTICIPANT WAS AFFECTED.

Rather than amending several years, we thought we could simply remove it from the plan's assets in 2015 by listing its value on Schedule I - probably as Other Expenses (line 2i). We would then include a "Schedule I - Other Attachment" with the filing, explaining the adjustment to correct for an accounting error and stress that this affected no one other than the owner.

Thoughts/comments please.

A participant worked for 12.9 years under an union negotiated plan that provides for $50 per year of credited service. in 2010 at the age of 66 1/2 he transfers to a different job within the same company that has a defined benefit plan which is based on a formula that takes a percentage of his highest 5 years of salary multiples it by the years of credited service offset by the same percentage of his social security times years of credited service. the formula looks like this (1.5% X Average Monthly Earnings X Yrs Credited Service) - (1.5% X Monthly Social Security Benefit X Yrs Credited Service) = Monthly Benefit. the participant is now 73 years of age and wishes to retire. The current plan specifies that after 5 years of vesting service under the new plan all benefits will be calculated under the new plan provisions. (This is referred to an an all service benefit)

Under the plan provisions the participant must apply for benefits to establish his retirement date.

The plan states that a participant becomes vested the earlier of 5 years of vesting service or attaining his 65th birthday.

The plan provides for continued accruals until the actual date of separation.

The plan requires an actuarial increase of benefits after December 31st of the year the participant reaches 70 1/2 and for every year following.

There are no provisions in the plan for offsets or 'higher of' type calculations.

The plan allows for suspension of benefits but none was issued.

The plan provides for actuarial increases of benefits at NRA or actual separation form employment, whichever is later.

On December 31st, 2013 the participant is still employed and has passed his 70 1/2 date triggering the first actuarial increase and an added year of accrual.

The participant was still under a split calculation. i.e. $645 + (1.5% X AME X 4) - (1.5% X SSB X 4) = Benefit.

On December 31st, 2014 the participant has 5 years vesting service under the new plan and there should be both an actuarial increase and an added year of accrual.

The calculation now becomes (1.5% X AME X 17.9) - (1.5% X SSB X 17.9) + Benefit.

The same scenario continues until 2016 when the participant request a retirement date.

The first question is how do you deal with the split calculation of December 31st, 2013. Do you do an actuarial increase on the union negotiated plan result starting on December 31st, 2013 or starting on December 31st, 2009? The participant was fully vested and did not accrue any additional benefits form that date.

The second question is how do you bring the 2013 adjustments into the later calculations? The all service calculation of 2014 and later is much higher than the fully adjusted benefit of 2013.

Small union construction company. Owner pays union dues for himself as well.

Can owner have a plan sponsored by his company, exclude other union men but include himself, possibly for a big DB or CB plan?

How does everyone generally handle someone who is out on early retirement who returns to work? The person had a 1 year break in service before returning to work 1/4 in '14 and 1/4 in '15 before retirning again.

Is there an IRS regulation that freezes the early retirement benefit from the first time employed, with a new reduction for the new accrued benefit?

Or do people generally recalculate the previous benefit, based on the additional time worked, since there was only a 1 year break?

for the record, FT Williams form 5500 now carries the message:

IRS Compliance Questions are no longer required and will not be submitted.

A 401(k) plan has been approaching the 60% top heavy ratio for a few plan years. The current Key Employees, the owners and one long time Officer, have agreed not to defer until the top heavy test is completed each year, to avoid having to make a top heavy minimum.

For 2016 the ratio exceeds 60% for the first time. The Keys stopped deferring after 12/31/2015 and have decided among themselves not to defer in 2016.

The company is hiring an employee in 2016 whose job functions will classify the new employee as an Officer and the new employee will be eligible to defer in 2016. His compensation will exceed $170,000 in 2016, and no Officers are excluded under the 10% rule.

Question is, for 2016, although the new employee will most likely meet the Key Employee definition on the 12/31/2016 determination date for determining the 2017 Key Employees, am I correct that this employee IS NOT a Key Employee for the 2016 plan year, and would not trigger a top heavy required contribution if he defers in 2016?

Thank you.

My understanding is that if a person has 5 IRA's and he rolls over the funds from one IRA to his other 4 IRA's this doesn't violate the one IRA rollover per year rule. Is that correct?

Any responses would be appreciated!

Owner has high-3-year established average comp of $250,000. Cash balance plan was established for 2015, with the owner slated to receive a flat $100,000 each year (with no percentage of pay mentioned). But 2015 census comes back with owner showing $0 pay. Can he still receive the $100,000 thanks to his prior comp (similar to a traditional DB)? Or is a CB allocation limited to current comp, regardless of the benefit formula in the document?

Can I limit Catch-up Eligible HCE's? So all HCE's eligible for catch-ups are limited to 5% of pay plus catch-ups?

Or would that be age discrimination since your limiting people who are over age 50 exclusively?

Hi Everyone,

Participant first distribution calendar year was 2015 and wanted the distribution to take place at the end of December for tax purposes. Because of improper information and service provider error, the participant requested the distribution in December and it was processed in January. Although this is permissible because it is before April 1, the participant would like for that distribution to be 2015 income.

Does anyone have any experience with a situation like this? I'm leaning towards there being no remedy but wanted other opinions.

Thanks!

I'm looking for any discussion of whether a retirement plan in a foreign country (not an ERISA plan) can be treated as one-in-the-same as its sponsor -- under our rules (ERISA)?

PS Grouping method:

Owners in own group.

All others in a single group.

4 owners at 25%.

Son of one of the owners is a participant.

Is he in his own group? Or with all others?

This may be a little too general of a question, but I got handed a DB Plan that was frozen 1/1/15 and don't have much experience with them. Basically, they froze the benefits as of 1/1/15 and already had a $60,000 credit balance on the Schedule B (after using a portion of it to lower the required contribution in '14).

They are now asking me what, if any, is the required contribution for '15.

Is there an easy way to calculate this or is the question too abstract?

Thanks in advance for any help/guidance!

For a MEWA, we need to issue the 1095-B's but are having issues getting all of the EIN #'s for the smaller employers. Has anyone else had this problem? What resolution did you use?

Thanks in advance!

Defined benefit plan. Participant has 9 years of vesting service. Plan has 5 year cliff vesting.

Participant is unmarried and dies without having ever listed a beneficiary with the Plan. He does have several children, though. But, again, never filled out a form naming any of them as a beneficiary.

Plan administrator is saying no benefits are payable.

Is that correct?

If not, to whom should benefits be paid? And when? And in what amount?

Assume the Plan document is silent.

Thanks.

How do you count hours for eligibility for a plan for a professional who only records billable hours (e.g., an attorney in a law firm)?

Actual hours worked are generally more than billable hours. But certain types of professional services firms generally do not even collect information on the non-billable hours. And although the billable hours might be said to be what the employee is paid for, the employee's pay is not so directly tied to hours that it would be adjusted up or down specifically for differences between actual billable hours and the required ones.

Are equivalencies generally used? Or do you just use the elapsed time method?

The situation is that the employee was laid off as of June 1st 2015. The company agreed to continue to subsidize his health insurance payments for 1 year. Him and his wife were moved to Cobra at that time. The monthly rate after the company subsidy is $400 a month. When the subsidies end June 1st of 2016 the rate jumps to $1100 a month.

Are there any options for him and his spouse or just his spouse to jump off of Cobra and join another plan mid-year?

Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer.