so we are stuck for 9 straight days beginning

5/10/15

and ending

5/19/15

next year it takes place in June

I'm hooked up with a recruiter and have looked thru the jobs here. Any other places to search for pension jobs? LinkedIn?

I have a plan that excludes stock options from their plan definition of compensation (also their allocation definition). They are nonqualified stok options exercised. They exclude other items as well.

When running the general test, do I use gross compensation (W-2 compensation which includes stock options exercised) or do I used plan compensation? (let's assume plan compensation passes 414s testing.)

In a 401k plan, I know you are allowed to charge the participant a fee directly for taking a distribution. Are we also permitted to also charge the participant of a defined benefit plan a fee as well, or if a fee is to be charged, does it have to be charged to the plan?

Thanks for your thoughts.

A client has a participant who died and has no information regarding beneficiaries, family members or the executor of his estate.

They are approaching the 5 year anniversary of the participant's death and want to know:

1) What they should do with the money. Is a missing participant IRA an option?

2) If there is a penalty if they hold on to the money beyond the 5 years.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

An IRA Owner would like to direct investment into a newly forming privately held US Business, whereby he would have an equity interest of less than 10% (probably less than 5%).

It should be noted the IRA Owner would be a member of the advisory board as a recognized professional with immeasurable experience and knowledge as it relates the product the company is developing and will ultimately be marketing.

Would this be a Prohibited Transaction? If the IRA Owner is not a member of the advisory board would the answer change?

Would being a member of the advisory board raise self dealing issues?

The business is developing and ultimately will market an implantable prosthetic.

Would this trigger Unrelated Business Income issues?

The company is expected to be quite successful and the IRA Owner would like the investment growth to occur in his tax deferred IRA rather than his personal asset portfolio for tax reasons.

Could this person who has a non-Title I DBP make the same investment using the DBP assets?

The issue of liquidity is understood. The need for annual valuation of the privately held investment for plan valuation purposes is also recognized.

Thank you

For the 51+ market, it seems that individual health questionnaires can still be required. In fact, many health insurance companies are in fact requiring this.

Now all this seems to me to be in violation of §147.104: Guaranteed availability of coverage: Guaranteed availability of coverage in the individual and group market. Subject to paragraphs (b) through (d) of this section, a health insurance issuer that offers health insurance coverage in the individual, small group, or large group market in a State must offer to any individual or employer in the State all products that are approved for sale in the applicable market, and must accept any individual or employer that applies for any of those products.

Also this: (e) Marketing. A health insurance issuer and its officials, employees, agents and representatives must comply with any applicable state laws

This is for a cross tested 401k Safe Harbor plan that provides:

1 year eligibility for 401k, employer SHM, optional/discretionary ACP SHM and PS

Immediate eligibility for Davis Bacon/Prevailing Wage type contribution

Vesting is 2/20 for PS and optional ACP SHM

100% immediate Vesting for 401k, SHM and DB/PW type contributions

The DB/PW provision states (N/S VS doc): "The Employer will make a Prevailing Wage Contribution on behalf of each Participant who performs services subject to the Service Contract Act, Davis-Bacon Act or similar... The Prevailing Wage Contribution shall be an amount equal to the balance [emphasis mine] of the fringe benefit payment for health and welfare for each Participant (after deducting the cost of cash differential payments for the Participant) based on the hourly contribution rate for the Participant's employment classification as designated on Schedule A as attached to this [Plan]

The PW contribution is defined as non-elective (but specifically not a QNEC) and shall be used to offset the employer's contributions (other than ADP test SH contributions)

The employer has a DB/PW job coming up and would like to contribute the fringe portion (or at least a portion of it) to the plan. It should be noted there have been other jobs subject to DB/PW completed in the past (while plan has been in place) whereby the basic wage and fringe were both paid in cash (i.e. wages).

Will it be sufficient for the employer to provide advance notice to the affected employees that on Job X, $#.## per hour will be contributed to the Plan in lieu of cash payment in accordance with DB/PW? These contributions/hours will be tracked within payroll and plan record kept separately (i.e. own source bucket).

It is okay for the employer to choose whether or not to contribute the DB/PW amounts from job to job, and how much of the fringe portion amount from job to job, in a discretionary manner so long as advance notice is provided to affected employees and the hours/contributions are tracked/record kept accordingly? It would appear to be permissible since the Plan's wording states the contribution to the Plan is the "balance"... (see above).

Apologies for the length of this post. Thank you

Have any of you non-producing (non-licensed) TPAs successfully counted your experience in order to meet the 3 year experience requirement for the CFP designation?

I have met the education requirement to sit for the CFP exam but do not want to waste time taking it if my experience will not count.

Hello, what is the consequence if a plan did not obtain the supporting documentation to prove the loan from the 401k or 403b plan was for the purchase of a primary residence? Is self-correction available? Are there penalties/or filings assessed?

Let's say the employer remitted a payroll contribution to the plan timely, but failed to provide a breakdown for 14 days. Does the employer owe lost earnings to the participants? What's the rule?

Thanks,

deferral only 401(k) did not allow a rehired former participant to make an election to rejoin the plan. (Plan sponsor believed the rehire needed to meet eligibility again). Rehire is an NHCE. Rehire date was March 2014. Does the QNEC and applicable earnings need to be 50% of the NHCE's ADP for the whole 2014 plan year? What about current 2015 calendar plan year? The rehire has made a new deferral election for this plan year and is now in the plan effective this month. Would a separate NHCE ADP need to be calculated for ytd 2015?

thanks

Let's say the participants in a plan are charged (by mistake) 1% annual management fee whereas they should actually have been charged 0.50%. In this case, can the plan sponsor reimburse the participants for the years they were charged extra? Is this considered an allowed correction procedure?

An employer has 3 job classes:

• Drivers
• General Laborers
• Administration

They want to do the following:

• Drivers with less than 1 year of employment with the company must pay for 50% of their insurance premiums. Drivers with 1 to 2 years of employment with the company must pay for 40% of their insurance premiums. Drivers with 2 to 3 years of employment with the company must pay for 30% of their insurance premiums. Drivers with 3 or more years of employment with the company must pay for 20% of their insurance premiums.
• General Laborers with less than 1 year of employment with the company must pay for 60% of their insurance premiums. General Laborers with 1 to 2 years of employment with the company must pay for 50% of their insurance premiums. General Laborers with 2 to 3 years of employment with the company must pay for430% of their insurance premiums. General Laborers with 3 or more years of employment with the company must pay for 30% of their insurance premiums.
• Admins with less than 1 year of employment with the company must pay for 40% of their insurance premiums. Admins with 1 to 2 years of employment with the company must pay for 30% of their insurance premiums. Admins with 2 to 3 years of employment with the company must pay for 20% of their insurance premiums. Admins with 3 or more years of employment with the company must pay for 10% of their insurance premiums.

Besides having to test for Section 125 discrimination... what must we consider?

Can you start a new HSA after starting a new job if your previous job included an FSA?

I'm having a hard time teasing out the details but it appears to me that once you have a (non-limited use) FSA in a calendar year, it prevents you from having any form of HSA later in that calendar year, even if you switch jobs. Is this correct?

Suppose you work for company A from January until June. Company A provides a standard PPO and employee uses a standard (non-limited use) FSA to defer $500. Entire $500 is spent in March on medical care.

Employee leaves company A on June 30 and then joins company B on July 1. Company B provides HDHP, including company paid HSA contributions of $1K. Employee wants to contribute an additional $2K to HSA.

Is this possible? Can the employee contribute the $2K? Can the employee even sign up for the HDHP given that it includes the company paid HSA contribution of $1K? Does it matter that the FSA from company A is gone by the time the HSA starts?

TIA.

A plan is being amended to remove the auto enrollment feature. Is a notice required to go to the participant that auto enroll feature is being removed? If so, what is the timing of the notice. 30 days?

hello

a participant, who met eligibility then entered the plan then terminated enters the plan upon their date of rehire. Is there a 5 year break in service rule that says if you terminated employment longer than 5 years you have to meet eligibility again? I think I am confusing that with another reg.

thanks

Anyone have knowledge of whether John Hancock is providing a PPA plan document.

We (TPA) have a letter from John Hancock dated Sept 2013 indicating NO and clients will need to make other arrangements.

Today I have an email from a John Hancock sales rep to a financial advisor that starts off "restatement sales idea" and discusses the requirement of the PPA document and that most restatements costs between $1,000 - $1,500. He implies that the restatement fee can be avoided by bringing plan over to John Hancock. He says the client would be "saving money by not having to pay the restatement fee".

???

Apparently option 1 below will wipe out all existing elections, so if Johnny is contributing 8%, he gets dropped down to 3%. Can anyone explain to me why you would ever use option 1? Option 2 would leave anyone contributing more than 3% alone.

1. [X] All Participants. All Participants, regardless of any prior Salary Deferral Agreement.

2. [ ] Affirmative Election of at least Automatic Deferral amount. All Participants, except those who have an Affirmative Election in effect on the effective date of the Automatic Deferral provisions that is at least equal to the Automatic Deferral amount and except as otherwise provided below with respect to the escalation of deferral provisions.

3 plans are members of a control group.

Plans A and B are Safe Harbor Basic Match plans.

Plan C is only a 401(k) Plan with no Safe Harbor feature.

Can someone describe the compliance tests that I need to run for this control group situation.

If I can pass the Ratio % test with Plans A,B, and C combined and with Plan C not benefiting, does this satisfy compliance testing?

Any assistance is greatly appreciated.