Are Executor(trix) fees considered earned income which can be considered compensation for qualified plan purposes?

Looking for info regarding "typical" internal costs to administer employee benefits programs, perhaps expressed as a percentage of total premium expense or on a PEPM basis. After years of severe cuts, I'm hoping to justify additional staff or consulting resources, but the first question from above is always "How do our costs compare with others?"

Of course there are way too many variables to take into account for a detailed analysis or response, but even a general idea would be helpful. Say you had 5,000 employees with +/- $100 million in annual premiums for medical, dental, life, disability, eap, voluntary programs, etc... What would you expect your internal costs for benefits admin - staff, communication, consultants, etc... - to run?

Has there been any coverage of admin costs in any of the big national surveys that you could point me to?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

- 401k distribution to terminated participant's IRA.

- IRA owner decides to convert the rollover to ROTH.

Question: Do the converted ROTH assets continue to receive unlimited asset protection?

Company A is being acquired by Company B.

Both of them have an existing 401(k) Plan.

Company A wants to terminate their plan.

Do they need to do this before the official acquisition date in order to not violate the Successor Plan Rules?

If the Plan termination is done after the official acquisition date, what are the consequences?

Does it matter if its a Stock sale or Asset only sale?

Any guidance is greatly appreciated

Alex

A 401(k) plan allows in-service distribution of deferrals, match, and PS accounts at age 59 1/2. Several participants have money that was transferred from the employer's terminated pension plan. The transferred assets are not eligible for in-service distributions. The PPA amendment specified that in-service distributions of transferred pension assets would not be allowed at age 62.

The employer wants to amend to allow in-service distributions of the former pension accounts at age 62, leaving the other accounts as-is, eligible to be distributed at 59 1/2.

Document is Sungard Corbel. How do I change the PPA amendment? Do I call it a revised amendment?

Looking at the document checklist and language manual, even if I had originally coded for distributions at age 62, it doesn't look like this would have been mentioned anywhere except the PPA amendment. Do I need to amend any other section of the document, such as adding it to the "In-Service Distribution of Employer Contributions" section?

Which PVAB do we use in calculating the RMD:

• PVAB calculated on valuation basis, or
• PVAB calculated on termination basis

Also, our actuary uses the first day of the plan year for valuation, so presumably the PVAB shown on last valuation would be as of 01/01/13. Can we use this for the 2014 RMD, or do we need a re-calculation as of 12/31/13?

A non-owner 401k participant retires at age 79 in Sept 2014, so her RBD is 4/1/2015.

She dies Oct 2014 and her spouse is her designated beneficiary.

Since she died prior to her RBD, does the plan still need to distribute the first RMD amount prior to distributing her account balance to her spouse?

Can an employer (fully insured) offer a greater cash opt out benefit based on years of service?

For example:

1st year = employee can take health insurance, or receive $50 per month

2nd year = employee can take health insurance, or receive $100 per month

3rd year = employee can take health insurance or receive $200 per month.

A former partner of a company is retiring December 31, 2014. However, this partner will be receiving deferred compensation in 2015 and 2016. They have asked whether or not they can make elective deferrals off of this compensation during 2015 and 2016. They will not be working in either of the two years.

It is my belief, in reading the plan document of the company, that this deferred compensation cannot be used for deferral purposes, as the partner is performing no services for the company in 2015 (or 2016). Just want to make sure that my interpretation is correct.

Thanks for any replies.

I have a potencial client that would like to start a plan for 2014.

If the two owners they maximize their profit sharing (52,000), do I need to factor that in when calculatin Top-Heavy status or 2015 since it won't be deposited until next year.

I know we add back 401k receivables. I know the plan will be TH in 2015 for 2016 but I wasn't sure if it will be TH in 2014 for 2015.

thanks

notes on running minimum distribution globally, and how to compare the results from the report I use with the standard (not crystal report) that is generated by Relius 70 1/2 distribution calculation. and notes on how to get that to pull the correct account balances if you ever wondered why it doesn't!

I use my own crystal report (which I have to update every year - mainly for certain dates that I have print)

this report is not intended for DB plans.

when you run this under report writer it will save a separate file for each plan that it finds a needed min distribution. depending on the size of you database I'd expect it to run about 1/2 - hour to produce and save reports, all in one spot.

of course, it is a use at your own risk, but I haven't encountered any problems (as I cross my fingers). generally we run this on a single plan basis each time we run a val, but what the heck, we are getting near the end of the year...

notes on how to run global report.doc

checking my report with relius report.doc

Min Distributions 2014.rpt

Every year in my memory, the IRS has announced the COLAs for 415, HCE, etc., the same day as the Social Security Administration has announced the new wage base. But SSA issued its announcement this morning, and there has still been nothing from IRS. Anyone know what the hold-up is?

Am thinking I had previously found a good discussion on this issue either here or elsewhere but I cannot seem to locate now. I am trying to come up with guidance to employer on how they are required to handle the final paycheck / compensation amounts being paid in connection with a merger.

Here seller has monthly payroll, deal is expected to close Nov. 21st. Buyer is requiring Seller to terminate 401(k) Plan immediately prior to closing. Seller will continue post-closing as a subsidiary of Buyer and will continue to employ existing employees but they will be eligible to participate in Buyer's 401(k) post-closing.

The paycheck for November will not be delivered until end of the month and so after closing. They care concerned about having any additional contributions hit the terminated plan after the closing date, even if the amounts are pro rated so that only 401(k) contributions on comp earned up through the termination date is used for plan purposes. Payroll provider is saying they cannot pay early or pro rate deferrals, etc. to help out.

Am curious as to what folks see as the usual and customary procedure here and whether there is any flexibility. We seem to see and hear different things from different recordkeepers, prototype plan sponsors and payroll administrators.

Thanks

When doing a valuation for a new solo-practitioner DB plan, where there is no past-service, we've included the current year comp in a BOY val for the first year, but not for the subsequent years. I assume that, if there was past-service, then it would be inappropriate to include current year comp even in the first year (with a BOY val). Is this correct? Thanks for any responses!

Our office is considering moving to Relius ASP - Managed Services where they'll host our use of the application and we can eliminate having servers to update, upgrade and maintain in our office. Does anyone have any experience with their Managed Services that they'd like to share. Leaning toward moving in this direction. Thanks!

A law firm recently amended their plan to allow for retired partners to participate in the plan. They had an attorney draw up the amendment but they did not prepare a Formal Record of Action of the Partners (Partnership) or a SMM. I told them they needed both and prepared the forms for them. They do not want to sign the Formal Record of Action of the Partners nor distribute the SMM.

Can they adopt the amendment without signing the Formal Record of Action of the Partners? I've never prepared an amendment with out it or a Corporate Resolution.

they just released the CPI-U factor about half hour ago.

so for July-Aug-Sept

we have

238.250

237.852

238.031

based on the regs this means the limits for next year are

(assuming my spreadsheet still works)

catch up 6000

deferral 18000

comp 265000

415 limit 53000

db limit 210000 (no change)

key 170000 (no change)

hce limit 120,000

I'd expect the IRS to release these figures shortly

Company A sponsors a single safe harbor 401(k). Company A has an office in Dallas and an office in Tampa. The safe harbor 401(k) plan is set up so that employees in the Dallas office are eligible to make deferrals and to receive safe harbor contributions immediately after completing 6 months of service. Employees in the Tampa office are eligible to make deferrals and receive safe harbor contributions after completing a year of service and attaining age 21. May a single safe harbor 401(k) plan apply these different eligibility rules? Thanks.

Manufacturing Inc is owned 100% by Chris.

Marketing Inc is owned 50%/50% by Chris and Chris Jr (age 25).

Manufacturing Inc pays Marketing Inc $100K per year to do marketing for Manufacturing Inc's products.

Marketing Inc only does marketing for Manufacturing Inc; it has no other clients.

This can't be an affiliated service group since neither is a service company.

Is this a controlled group?

Is Marketing Inc allowed to operate a 401k plan for just Chris and Chris Jr?

If so, what profit sharing contribution limits apply? The standard 25%?