Pension plan unmarried participant elects life annuity with 10 years certain and names three children as beneficiaries for one-third each. Participant dies before the 10-year guarantee period ends so remaining payments are due to the beneficiaries. However, one of the three beneficiaries also died, shortly after the participant but before receiving any benefits if that matters.

Are remaining benefits now paid to the two surviving beneficiaries at 50% each, or does the deceased beneficiary's portion go to that person's estate?

The plan is silent, as are the SPD and benefit election/beneficiary designation forms. Nothing specifically allows for beneficiaries to also elect their own beneficiaries so I'm inclined to say split remaining guaranteed payments between two remaining children. Thoughts?

Do you think it different if beneficiary had started receiving payments and then died?

Unless there is a specific legal avenue we must pursue (reason for my question) I think we ultimately need to have Plan Administrator interpret and decide upon how proceed.

Thanks

So, employer does binding resolution to terminate plan as of (x) date, no new contributions, etc., etc. Notification to employees is sent, specifying that date as the effective date of the plan termination. However, PLAN was not amended to terminate by that (x) date.

Arguably, the resolution can suffice, at least temporarily, to legitimately establish plan termination date, and plan can subsequently be formally amended to terminate, update for SECURE, etc.? Or is that a hard no? We always do plan amendment by the day before the formal termination date, but I believe that facts and circumstances can allow otherwise if the resolution, notification to employees, etc., are sufficiently detailed.

Thanks.

How can I use a QDRO to receive Alimony arrears, and if my ex-spouse retirement plan does not have a high enough account balance, what are some other immediate ways I can receive payment for my Alimony Arrears?

Also, as I mentioned I have arrears, but based on my court order, Alimony ended June of 2011. I know it is not possible to file for an extension of alimony once the term is over of alimony payments, but my question is: would I eligible to file for an extension of alimony because there are Arrears to be paid, and thus my Alimony term is still considered "Active."

Please note that a Judge issued a new order in October reaffirming my rights for alimony and ordered that "all terms and provisions of Judgement of Absolute Divorce are in Full Force and Effect."

Can anyone explain why IRA custodians request the "first year of Roth" when a Roth 401(k) is rolled over to a Roth IRA?  The 5-year clock starts over when Roth funds are rolled over from a 401(k) to a Roth IRA.  Besides the fact that I also don't understand WHY the clock starts over, why is this data collected?

If a loan is issued with a commercially unreasonable rate of interest. How is this a violation IRC 72(p) that would provide for the authority to deem the loan. If your answer is it results in a violation of substantially level amortization, please provide your reasoning bc I’m personally struggling to reach that conclusion.

Can a church offer a nonqualified deferred compensation plan, subject to Code Section 409A, to all employees or must participation be limited to a top-hat group?

I have been fighting with the benefits group of my former employer for the past 7 weeks. I was laid off, opted for Cobra, company paid 2 months and I started paying in month 3 (October). I sent my check in time for the due date, the company received and deposited my check but never applied it to my account. 

I noticed this a week after the payment was due when I logged into the benefits site to confirm everything was all set. When it showed it wasn't paid, I reached out to check on it and I was told they never received the check so I provided them with a front & back copy of the cancelled check that I had received in my bank statement. Proving that they did in fact receive and deposit the check. 

I also paid month 4 - November payment which they received, cashed and applied to my account and have paid December which has not yet been cashed or applied but not worried since it is well within the grace period and I believe they are holding it and it will eventually come back to me which will become clear why below. 

For the past 7 weeks I have been getting the run around from the company claiming (A) The check was not received (I provided  copy 5 days after they deposited it) (B) They sent the check back to me (they gave no reason why, just that it wasn't applied because they sent it back to me. Reminded them that I uploaded a copy of the front/back of the cashed check so they couldn't have sent it back to me) (C) They sent a refund check to me (I asked for details of when, where & to whom they sent it as well as a copy of front/back of the refund check if it had been cashed - I've gotten no response). (D) They credited my bank account (asked for details including the bank routing #'s and account that they credited and a copy of the receipt for the deposit to my account and the reason for the return of the funds - crickets because it didn't happen).  (E) The check was returned for insufficient funds 6.5 weeks ago (This one was my favorite!!! I asked for a copy of the ISF notice they received - once again, it didn't happen because I got the cancelled check back in my statement showing it was paid to their account ). 

I also received two statements in November, the first just before Thanksgiving, showing the October & November payments and only December due - generated after I called to question the payment and showed proof of payment and the second generated after Thanksgiving and the October payment has been removed again. 

Last week I gave until Friday afternoon to resolve this or I would file a complaint with Department of Labor COBRA division - On Sunday evening, yesterday, my insurance was cancelled without notice. 

I immediately opened a claim with DOL, uploaded all my proof of payment, copies of conversations (including the excuses) and statements of amounts owed. They called me back this morning and got to work contacting the former employers corporate lawyer. I also had surgery scheduled for today and DOL contacted the hospital where I was to have the surgery and made sure they knew the insurance was cancelled in error and the hospital agreed to continue the surgery. GO DOL!!!

My concern is now that they have cancelled my insurance due to their error that they have refused to fix, does anyone know how long it takes to be reinstated, I cannot get an answer from the worlds worst employer and what about my 2025 insurance? I have previously elected COBRA for my 2025 coverage but if they take this past the final signup date, can they screw me on that too? 

I am concerned that they are holding the December check and will return it to me at some point since I no longer have active insurance. I am prepared to send a second check for December if/when the check comes back uncashed or sooner so they have it in hand when the insurance is reinstated and to avoid them saying that my payment was out of the grace period. 

I can't imagine this is legal, cashing my check but not paying my insurance and I understand that mistakes happen but I spoke to no less than 5 different people who all came up with a different, ridiculous excuse for why it was not applied, each excuse instantly proved false by the cancelled check I uploaded to their system weeks ago. 

I've been told for the past 2 weeks that they are escalating this to the leadership team for review and finally today, after DOL got in touch with their corporate benefits lawyer that  "We went through the check images you provided, and are escalating to the bank processor for further review of the October payment."

Can they be fined by DOL? Pay a hopefully hefty penalty? Do I have other recourse or based on experience, should I be comfortable that they will reinstate my insurance and stop playing games? 

I give props to DOL, they reacted quickly and totally took care of me today and I have faith in the DOL rep but no faith in the worlds worst employer who after speaking with 5 different people, getting 5 different excuses and taking 7 weeks with nobody truly looking at this I have two options: Believe these are the most incompetent workers ever hired anywhere or this company is purposely doing this to ex-employees to screw up our insurance. 

Disclaimer: Writing this on pain killers after surgery today, I realize it's lengthy, I hope it makes sense  

I have a client who failed the ADP test.  No NHCEs contributed to the plan (the vendor did not disaggregate the client's two plans; one is for NHCEs and the other consists mostly of HCEs).  At any rate, does anyone know how to determine the highest permissible ADP for the HCE group in this instance?  There are only 4 out of 5 HCEs who were contributing to the plan. TIA

Anyone have any resources / contact information that can be sent to an attorney in Missouri who is not understanding the retirement beneficiary and federal rules for death benefits?

Or alternatively - tell me my understanding is wrong and I'll tell them and the sponsor to listen to the attorney?

Fact Pattern:

Death distributions needed from standard 401(k) and DB (PBGC covered) small employer retirement plans.  Everyone is in Missouri. 

No named beneficiaries, so the default plan document beneficiaries apply. In this case the default beneficiary in the plan document is the estate. Period. 

Decedent did not have a will, based on court filings total value of assets likely is less than $40,000 (including the retirement plans) Estate/Probate was not opened within one year, and in lieu of doing the Small Estate Probate (Which is still allowed after one year), the heirs did file and receive a Decree/Determination of Heirship. Which does happen to have an estate number on it, so the court can track it. 

• Attorney for the heirs wants the plans to pay directly to the heirs. 

• The plans are insisting on a TIN so the death benefits can be paid to an estate. Which I agree with. 

The confluence of federal laws for the plan, the fact that  there IS a beneficiary, so the determination of heirs doesn't really matter for the plans, etc, are confounding for the heirs' attorney.  

Other than just telling the plans to hold firm, any other ideas? information they can send them? Any Missouri estate attorneys want to chime in or want me to send their contact info to the heirs' attorney? 

W have a 01(k) plan which was effective in 2021.

Accountant wants to add  Roth contriubtions and recharacterize all prior contriubtions as Roth.

Need some cites, seems crazy.

I was divorced following 20 years of marriage. My ex was to receive 50% of my 2 retirement plans at time of our divorce. I have 2 pension plans as another company purchased the company is was working for. My ex has suddenly passed away and neither of us had started collecting my benefit. The first company has reverted my ex’s benefit back to me. The company I am currently working for says that my benefit is being forfeited. I do not have copies of my QDROs. Both QDROs were filled out and signed at the same time. This makes no sense to me. 

Accountant has approached us for best scenario to avoid LTPT, as he says “who do you know that’s works between 500-1000 hours that can afford to defer”

1. Amend plan to use elapsed time for eligibility, 1 year with no hours for entry, require 1000 hrs for any employer contribution

2. Age 21, 500 hrs eligibility for deferrals, Age 21, 1,000 hrs for employer contribution

3.  Employees signs the enrollment form with a $0 deferral each pay period  OR

4.  Corporate resolution stating the plan sponsor is electing out of the LTPT provisions

Curious to see if any of these are being considered or are being used already.

We represent a company that is about to acquire all the assets of a company that has been a pre-approved plan provider.  Our client would like to continue that business.  Obviously, our client is not so far on the list of entities with pre-approved plans.  And waiting until they could their own opinion letter (presumably Cycle 4 at this point) would mean losing a lot of potential business.

What do entities in this situation do?  The existing plans shouldn't be any less qualified due to the change in provider.  But a) is there any procedure under which an employer which adopted such a plan as provided by our client would have the protection of the opinion letter issued to the former provider, and b) as a business matter, what has people's experience been concerning the willingness of employers to adopt a plan from an entity not on the IRS list of approved pre-approved plan providers?

Can a QDRO be used for Alimony Arrears in Maryland. Also, if the original term of Alimony had ended (but never received Alimony payments, hence why a QDRO is being done), can you file for extension/modification of Alimony even if it is after the original awarded alimony term ends, but there are still arrears?

Plan had late deferrals that were all funded during the plan year.

The recordkeeper posts the contribution and then a few days later the income is posted.  Recordkeeper requires the Sponsor to approve the ACH for the income.

Regarding the Form 5330

Schedule C #5  - date of correction

is this the date the file was sent to the recordkeeper?

or

the date the deferrals were posted

or

the date the lost income was actually posted to the account

Is it reasonable for an employer to provide an SPD during the enrollment process 10-30 days prior to meeting initial eligibility? Or should the SPD be provided only until after eligibility has been met?  

This is to share with you the happy news that today is the 25th anniversary of the first day on which the BenefitsLink Newsletter began daily publication. I didn't see this coming when I decided to go daily in 1999, at age 41.

(The newletters had begun four years earlier, but they weren't being published every day.)

The free information must be helping employee benefits practitioners to help their clients, which translates to the ability of employers to effectively run and fund programs that improve the lives of so many millions of working people (and retirees, and beneficiaries), even if most of them wouldn't know (or want to know) the difference between an ERISA and an eraser. What a noble endeavor, to be an employee benefits practitioner!

Some lawyers and TPAs and other benefits practitioners have found work through our job board that's been running since 1996, which means they've gone to new workplaces and sometimes new cities, which means some of them have met people they wouldn't have met otherwise, which means some of them have fallen in love and then had children... which means there are people walking around on the planet now who wouldn't be here but for this "web site" thingie that started in 1995, and then the idea of sending "newsletters" by "email." None of that would have been possible without readers.

The existence of "BenefitsLink babies" didn't occur to me until one day about 10 years ago, but I kept it quiet -- at that time, they were still teenagers!

True to form, I and my business partner and wife Lois Baker (formerly an employee benefits lawyer, whom I met on CompuServe in 1990 while trading ERISA questions using dial-up modems) have failed to do any marketing of this happy day. But as I sat here at the keyboard today I had the idea that we would get so much joy by celebrating the occasion with readers. I hope this hasn't come across as a commercial but instead is the lifting of an E-flute of cyber-champagne -- here's to employee benefits practitioners everywhere! It's a wonderful community, and for 25 years now and still counting, we are so happy to be a part of it.

Can an employee make a deferral into the plan with money received as severance before the plan termination date or can it be made even after the termination date? Also, does the employer has to put in a match (Safe Harbor) on the severance pay? 

Company A just purchased Company B (December 5, 2024).  Company B will be adopting Company A's Safe Harbor 401-k Plan.  Company B currently has a Simple IRA.  I am being told we need to wait to terminate the Simple until 12/01/2025 because the participants must have a 30 day notice?  Does the fact that they are being acquired impact this?  Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Company B was acquired by Company A and is adopting their plan effective 1/1/2025.  Company B has a discretionary match with a vesting schedule while company A is a safe harbor match plan with no vesting on the safe harbor or profit sharing.  Is it permissible to make everyone at Company B 100 vested with their funds that currently are not 100% vested?  I know going forward there would be no vesting but what about the funds that are currently forfeitable?