We are looking for a 5 year plus Third Party Administrator and curious if anyone has had success using a national recruiter and if so, who? Also wondering if there are some other resources we should be considering in addition to this site?

Any insight is appreciated!

We have a former employee that has submitted paperwork from a 403(b) providor, to move her Ohio Deferred Comp funds (457)to the 403(b) providor. Wouldn’t she need to contact Ohio Deferred Comp to start the process to move funds from her 457 to that providor? I am not sure what role we as an employer would have for her moving funds from OHDEF to a 403(b) account. Are there IRS regulations that require the employer to be involved in distributions of a governmental 457?

Thank you,

Are there regs similiar to IRC 401(k)(4)(A) or Treasury Regulation 1.401(k)-1(e)(6) that apply to a 403(b) plan that prohibit a benefit be provided based on the participant's election to defer to a 403(b) Plan?

Thanks!

A Participant had a missed deferral and match corrected in 2013. It was for December of 2012 and January of 2013. The deferral went in as a QNEC for the correction and the match went in as a match. Does the match count in the ACP test for the corresponding year?

I've been reviewing Revenue Ruling 2014-09, and it appears to apply only to rollover contributions going into 401(a) plans. Does this extend to rollover distributions into nongovernmental 403(b) plans?

This seems like it should be a simple answer, but I haven't yet seen any guidance that explicitly included 403(b) plans.

Thanks!

If I transfer, say $20,000 to a Qualified Replacement Plan, I understand that I need to allocate not only the $20k, but also the earnings to the participants (within 7 years).

However, do I HAVE to allow the QRP suspense account to accrue earnings? Can it just sit in a cash position like a forfeiture account?

How are practitioners dealing with clients whose arrangements provide for post-termination of employment compensation based on payments within the controlled group? This can occur in a variety of sales situations. For example, Company A is the sales division of Goliathco and sells many products, including the products manufactured by Company B, which is the manufacturing division of Goliathco. Salesperson 1 is the top salesperson at Goliathco and would like to retire. Company A would like Saleperson 1 to transition her clients to Salesperson 2 prior to retirement. As such, Company A typically enters into an agreement to pay Salesperson 1 a portion of the commissions generated by Salesperson 2 due to sales to Salesperson 1's former clients for a period of 2 years following retirement.

Because Company A and Company B are the same 409A "service recipient," the special date or fixed time rule does not appear to be available for any compensation paid based on the receipt of payment by Company A from Company B. None of the other 409A permissible payment events are triggers, so the only option left appears to be exemption as a short-term deferral. That approach would be premised on the likelihood of a sale not occurring constituting a substantial risk of forfeiture. That is so facts-and-circumstances based it seems risky. Am I missing something here? Thanks!

We have a problem. In a H-W plan, the husband recently took a full distribution of his benefit as a rollover. For some reason, two points were ignored - 1) the 110% test and 2) the fact that the AFTAP would be less than 80% after the distribution. Other than fully repaying the distribution with earnings - are there any other solutions?

Thanks!

Facts: Participant, former 5+% owner begins receiving RMD at age 70.5. Participant takes RMD during the next 3 years, during which time his ownership is purchased by other owners. Participant becomes a 0% owner, remains employed and continues to participate in 401(k) plan. Participant would like to suspend any further RMD's siteing the fact that he is no longer a 5+% owner. The Plan document allows for Non-Owner Participants to be exempted from RMD until separation of employment.

Question: Can the RMD's, once begun, be suspended at the request of the Participant, to be resumed at a later date or terminationn of employment? Or must the RMDs continue to be calculated and distributed each year.

For the past 18 years I received a monthly pension from Towers Watson, which used to be Towers Perrin, which used to be TPF&C, which gobbled up my roots at Tillinghast, Nelson & Warren. Now, I get this "thing" called an "Annual Funding Notice." It tells me the company should have contributed $125 million in 2013. They didn't tell me what they contributed, but gee, $125 million is a lot of billable hours.

Oh, I turn to page 2 and it shows assets of $2.2 billion and liabilities of $1.8 billion. So, I feel somewhat comforted. Then, I see some credit balances of about $450 million. I wonder what they are. Obviously, something bad because they're subtracting them from the assets. Is $450 million a debt the Plan owes? Does the Plan not really have enough assets?

Is my robust monthly pension of $115.05 secure or do I need to make other provisions for my retirement. In any event, I'm certainly pleased that Congress forces TW to set the record straight for me so that my former employer does not hide the precarious shape the Plan is in.

Got a 457b "funded" w/ brokerage accounts. Am I correct that the board really ought to be approving a menu of funds? I assume it would be ill advised to let the execs trade in anything they choose? I had one other 457b plan this way and that's what the attorney recommended. I wasn't sure if that was a rule or a good recommendation or what.

Plan A is a multiemployer money purchase plan. Plan B is a multiemployer 401(k)/profit sharing plan. The assets of Plan A are to be transferred to Plan B. Plan A will now longer exist after the transfer.

My question is whether a Form 5310-A should be filed as a result of the transaction? It seems as though this is not required because the transaction would satisfy the 4 requirements of the exception described in the instructions, but I'm wondering if it is good practice to file the form regardless. Also, should Plan A file Form 5310 after the transaction is completed? Again, I'm not sure this is required, but is it good practice?

Any help on this would be appreciated.

A plan sponsor was acquired via stock sale. They were told that terminating their plan before the deal closed was advisable to provide more freedom of choice to their plan participants (a distributable event allowing more distribution choices, rather than face a plan merger under the successor plan rules). The acquiring entity also did not want to take on the liabilities present in an active qualified plan with operational defects.

I don't have any details on the purchase agreement between the 2 parties, unfortunately, but will guess that not much was stated regarding the retirement plan.

So now we have a terminated plan that still has a number of steps to fully shut down, including current and future compliance testing, tax form filings, potential refunds, distributions, etc..

Question 1: Am I correct is thinking the acquiror has every right to insist that those tasks (and costs) be handled by the acquiree?

Question 2: Does the acquiror somehow inherently own the liability for the acquired company's plan anyway, absent anything in the purchase agreement specifying that the plan trustees/officers of the acquired co. are personally responsible until the plan is shut down and beyond?

Thanks for any comments and observations!

I have a new client that is the subsidiary on an Israeli company. All of the employees of the subsidiary are sales people. There are no officers. The company wishes to establish a plan for the U.S. employees. Can the Israeli president of the parent act as the trustee of the U.S. plan? I know the law requires the indicia of ownership of the trust assets to be held in the U.S. but I haven't been able to find any requirement that the trustee be here. Any help or guidance is greatly appreciated.

Plan year 03/01 - 02/28

Plan fails ADP testing at 02/28/13 & $1750 of HCE's deferrals are reclassified as catch-up.

HCE defers $23,000 during 2013 (evenly across all paychecks). It seems to me that we can classify $3,750 of that as catch-up at 12/31/2013. (The $5,500 less the amount used at 02/28/2013)

HCE defers $4,500 in January & February of 2014.

Plan fails testing @ 02/28/2014 and a large refund is required. The system is reclassifying an additional $5,500 as 2014 catch-up on top the $3,750 that we already reclassified for 2013. I think I can use $4,500 as 2014 catch-up, but I don't see that I can use more than the deferrals made during 2013.

Basically I'm think the ADP test should show $19,250. ($23,000 less $3,750 for 2013 catch-up). Up to an additional $4,500 could be called 2014 catch-up and used to reduce any refund

Am I missing something?

Thanks in advance for any guidance.

We are taking over an old PSP that includes a mandatory after tax component. Prior to our involvement, recordkeeping has been done in-house. No participant direction. Balance forward annual statements. Plan is audited. Plan has loans that are accounted for in total as a trust asset, as things used to be 15-20 years ago, not as assets of the account of the participant taking the loan.

The trustee bank is accounting for the loans in a separate account under a master promissory note. The balance is increased when a new loan is issued, decreased to reflect principal payments. Not sure how frequently the decreases happen, but as long as everything balances at the end of the year, it shouldn't matter.

Participant statements for those who have a loan will have a note at the bottom indicating their loan balance. The participant's share of the total loan account will not be shown separately, nor wil there be any other indication of loan activity.

Loan interest is allocated to all participants as earnings, whether or not they have a loan.

There is a $100 loan fee taken from loan proceeds, but included as part of the loan amortization.

If a participant defaults (which has supposedly never happened except for terms) and offsets, at that point the outstanding balance is removed the master loan account and deducted from their balance prior to payment.

I need to know if all this sounds reasonable, is there anything to be on the lookout for, have we missed anything, etc? It's been too long since I've had to deal with loan accounting like this. Help is always appreciated.

We are taking over an old PSP that includes a mandatory after tax component. Prior to our involvement, recordkeeping has been done in-house. No participant direction. Balance forward annual statements. Plan is audited. Plan has loans that are accounted for in total as a trust asset, as things used to be 15-20 years ago, not as assets of the account of the participant taking the loan.

The trustee bank is accounting for the loans in a separate account under a master promissory note. The balance is increased when a new loan is issued, decreased to reflect principal payments. Not sure how frequently the decreases happen, but as long as everything balances at the end of the year, it shouldn't matter.

Participant statements for those who have a loan will have a note at the bottom indicating their loan balance. The participant's share of the total loan account will not be shown separately, nor wil there be any other indication of loan activity.

Loan interest is allocated to all participants as earnings, whether or not they have a loan.

There is a $100 loan fee taken from loan proceeds, but included as part of the loan amortization.

If a participant defaults (which has supposedly never happened except for terms) and offsets, at that point the outstanding balance is removed the master loan account and deducted from their balance prior to payment.

I need to know if all this sounds reasonable, is there anything to be on the lookout for, have we missed anything, etc? It's been too long since I've had to deal with loan accounting like this. Help is always appreciated.

Hello,

On line 8f on the 5500 SF, many TPAs are using the actual fees that appear on brokerage statements to complete the information needed for line 8f. What about investment advisory fees that are not appearing on statements? Are other TPA's not reporting these fees on 8f? really, we are looking for clarification on what fees are being listed fro brokerage accounts. Any insight would be appreciated.

Is an Employee Assistance Program, for which an employer pays a PEPM fee to provide its employees, a "fully insured" or "self-insured" benefit? It seems as if it is fully insured but would then the EAP provider be subject to state insurance law?

Assume that the EAP provides more than just referrals and is a group health plan under ERISA.

I am unsure as to what line on the Schedule H, Part I real estate investment trusts and municipal bonds would be included. Any thoughts?