I have a client who rolls her 401(k) account into to her IRA in 2014. She has multiple positions(about 30 stocks and 15 bonds) that are transferred in kind. On the final statement no values are shown on the day the positions are journaled; only number of shares and bond face amounts. Given that there is no tax effect associated with the precision of the valuation, is it bad practice to just use the previous statement value of the portfolio or is it good practice in that I can't justify billing the client for the date of journaling calculation given that it is has no tax effect on her.

401k Plan using age 21 and 1 YOS (1000 hours). Truck driver is paid 25 cents per mile, reported on W-2. How the heck do we figure his hours out?

I know that new participants should get a QDIA Notice. Also, those who are already defaulted get one.

What about eligible people who have no account balance? Do they get a Notice every year?

Hoping someone can help me out here!

One of my employers failed to begin elective tax deferred contributions from an employees paycheck.

The employee signed up last July of 2014 and is just now reporting that deferrals are not coming out.

The employer has a signed copy of election in the employee's file (the company also matches on deferrals.

Is there a regulation that states how this should be handled?

Is the employer responsible to make up both the EE and ER contributions?

Let's say you have a non-governmental 457(b) plan that qualifies as a "top hat" plan. There is no Rabbi Trust. 457 plans are subject to ERISA, except to the extent that a specific exemption applies. ERISA 401(a)(1) exempts the plan from ERISA fiduciary responsibility.

So, is there potentially State law fiduciary liability? Or, does the fact that the plan is subject to ERISA mean that ERISA preempts any State fiduciary laws, in spite of the fact that ERISA fiduciary rules do not apply? Or, is this one of those dreaded "gray" areas?

A non-safe harbor 401(k) plan has a September 30 year end. Employees who should have been given the opportunity to defer on October 1, 2014, were not. Employer wants to correct now and be done with it. EPCRS says the missed deferral is determined by multiplying the ADP for year of exclusion by the employee's compensation.

The ADP for 9/30/15 will not be known for some time. Any suggestions on how to correct now and not wait until end of year?

Thank you.

The news and DOL talk about diversifying a long time ago and I am having trouble remembering. Was the quarterly PPA notice required to go to everyone eligible to defer or just those with accounts?

Looking at a cash balance plan as a potential takeover. The pay credit formula for the owners is based on 401(a)(17) limited comp then subtract out the bonus (comp - bonus). It seems like that allows the owners to virtually set their pay credit every year based on how much of their pay they label as "bonus". Does anybody think this is a concern?

Looking for guidance on the deadline for amending a 401k/PS plan to add contribution of unused sick leave feature. The facts of Rev. Ruling 2009-31 state that the plan was amended to add this feature in December, 2008 before the feature took effect in January 2009 (when PTO was granted to employees). There is no discussion elsewhere in the Rev Rul regarding timing of the amendment. I have read several articles that make the blanket statement that the plan must be amended before the beginning of the plan year.

Since this is an optional provision I would think it would fall under the heading of a discretionary amendment that must be adopted before the end of the year in which it is first effective. Client has already notified participants of new policy (contributing unused sick leave to 401k as a nonelective contribution) but 401k/PS plan document does not support it. Looking for something more than passing factual item in the Rev Rul to support conclusion that they cannot make contributions this year because they did not amend the plan before the beginning of the plan year (Jan-Dec plan year). Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!

We have always suggested that if someone sends in extra loan payments to either:

1) Apply them to another outstanding loan, or

2) Send it back to the company to reimburse the participant

In fact, we deal with a national carrier that does #2 routinely. In fact, they make the check payable to the participant.

I have such a situation, but with another national carrier. They expressed their disagreement with the proposed correction (send back to the company) and believed the funds should stay in the trust to offset contribution, be reallocated or used to pay fees.

How do you guys approach these?

Employer purchased Company B. Company B terminated their plan prior to the sale and some of the participants rolled their distributions to the new employer's plan.

The new employer does not allow Roth contribuitons, however Company B did allow Roth Contributions. When the rollovers were done to the new plan the Roth Accounts moved along with the pre tax account. According to the TPA, the Roth transfers would be considered a frozen source until the new plan was amendmed to allow roth contributions.

I thought in order to transfer a roth account from one employer's plan to another, the new plan had to offer Roth contributions to begin with.

What am I missing???

I have a plan that wants to use a fixed match for "Administrative and Hourly" employees (50% on 4%), and a discretionary match for "Patternmakers". Any HCE's would be in the Administrative and Hourly group, and the Patternmakers would have no HCEs.

I assume if the fixed match for Administrative and Hourly employees exceeds the match made for the Patternmakers we would have to test for Benefit, Rights or Features (BRF) issues since the rate of match available to an HCE would exceed the match available for a NHCE. However, if the sponsor decided not to make any match for the Patternmakers in a plan year, would that simply be a coverage issue, or would the rate of match for the Patternmakers be considered to be zero and, therefore, BRF testing comes back into play?

Clearly, excluding certain groups from receipt of match completely is just a coverage and ACP testing issue, and I guess I am struggling to see the differnce between saying the Patternmakers are excluded from the match, and saying the Patternmakers are eligible for a match, but the matching rate is zero. That leads me to the conclusion that BRF testing wouldn't apply in years where the discretionary match for Patternmakers is zero.

Can someone please clarify when Benefits Rights and Features testing would apply to this situation?

Thanks

LANDO

Is the choice of a network by a plan sponsor of a self-insured plan a decision that is subject to ERISA's fiduciary requirements?

For example and theoretically, can a employer that has participants primarily living in Florida choose a TPA whose network contains primarily Idaho providers?

Or is this a settlor decision?

If an employer currently sponsors a profit sharing only plan, no 401(k) feature, and they terminate the plan, are they prohibited from starting up a new profit sharing plan or a new 401(k) plan within 12 months of the termination?

It looks to me like treasury regulation 1.401(k)-1(d)(4) would not apply in this case. So perhaps they can start up a new plan without the 12 month wait?

Boxes 12-17 are for state taxes. If there is no withholding are others just leaving these boxes blank?

Wholly owned sub started taking 401k contributions for remittance starting in 2015. Am I correct that this could be considered a discretionary amendment that can be signed by the end of the plan year (12/31/15)?

If anyone has something on point, such an ASPPA Q&A, that would be awesome...

It seems to me like this is one of the grayest areas I can think of. Is it even an amendment? I say yes because it is expanding the scope of eligible employees. No different than amending to include Division A in the Plan.

I have a ten- or twelve-company controlled group where at least the main company (and maybe others - I'm still gathering information) has become an ESOP. I know someone has to look out for the combined employer contribution limits (there is no PS, and the match is about 2%, so that shouldn't be so bad). And I suppose that I'll have to be more vigilent about ownership percentages...

But is there anything else that I need to be looking out for or advising my client on? Thanks.

Let me start by stating that I've never had anything to do with 457(f) plans, so I'm asking this question from a position of almost complete ignorance. (I guess that qualifies me to run for Congress...)

A client (501©(3) if it matters) has a 457(f) document that was drafted in 2008 or very early 2009. My question is this: Have there been updates in the laws (409) or otherwise) that would automatically require this document to be updated? In other words, if no updates since original drafting, are they automatically out of compliance, or might they still be ok? I realize this will ultimately need to be resolved by the client's legal counsel, but I thought I'd like to just have some idea of potential issues.

Thanks.

Every now and again we talk about going paperless. My issue has always been that when reviewing people's work, printing it out on paper has OFTEN manifested errors that I never would have caught in a paperless environment.

Take for example reviewing HCE's. I have last year's census on my desk and the ADP test on my desk. I check back and forth, running fingers from person to person, or perhaps using roller going down a page, putting checkmarks on those I have reviewed, to ensure that everyone on both lists is accounted for. How is that possible in a paperless environment?

2 members of control group share benefits but have their own Life Insurance benefit plans

1 member is > 100

1 member is < 100

it seems from instructions they would file separate 5500's because of the separate Life Insurance benefits.

However, since one member company is < 100 ee's, is it fair to say they do not have to file?