alexa

A participant in our 401k plan terminated in 2000 and took distribution of his 401k balance in 7/2007. He was 0% vested in match. He was rehired in late 2007. 401k Plan has standard 5-year break-in-service language with buyback option. Would he have to pay back his 401k balance to get the match forfeiture restored?

We intend to freeze the match for 1 of our 401(k) plans. Match is defined in Plan as 50% on first 3% and 25% on next 3%. It is done each payroll period which is weekly. There is at least 1 union participating in plan. All unions have adopted Management benefits programs. There is immediate eligibility for 401k deferal at hire and match eligibility is immediate as well. This is not a safe harbor plan. Question: Is there a notice requirement to freeze match? if so, how many days? Does union have to be notified separately and if so how many days notice? My guess is that plan had to have been amended prior to beginning of calendar plan year 2008 so we may have to wait until 1/1/2009 to freeze? correct?

Our health, life, ad&d & STD plan are all part of 1 wrap plan. We have about 80 union emloyees covered under our STD plan but are not eligible for any of our medical or life/ad&d plans. THE STD plan covers the NY mandated temporary disability benefit of up to $170/wk. They are covered under another union plan for those benefits I see an exemption for not needing an SAR for plans with <100 who have only a plan for state insured disability. THe SAR encompasses premium payments for all healt & welfare plans. Must I send an SAR to these union participants? Much thanks

It has been our experience that performing a dependent eligibility audit can be a very financially rewarding project, but folks often underestimate the amount of effort required. Just having the participants fill out a form (essentially amounting to an affidavit) does not produce that great a result. After all, they signed their enrollment forms saying that everything was true and accurate, there isn't much motivation to change their story now. Full audits on the other hand have been known to generate reductions in dependent counts as high as 18%. The lowest percentage I personally have heard of was around 4%. To perform an end to end audit you need to break your plan documents down into specific types of dependents (legal spouse, underage biological child, step child, adopted child, grandchild, QMCSO, etc...) and determine what are the different sets of documentation you will accept as proof of that dependent's current status. For example: To verify a legal spouse you will most likely want proof of marriage (marriage license or certificate, depending on where the marriage occurred) and something proving they are still married, like a current joint filed tax return. The consistent theme for all dependents, regardless of type, should be to collect documents that establish the dependent relationship as well as documents that show the relationship is still in existence. Operationally there is a lot to do with one of these audits. Employee communication is critical to prevent backlash. Document collection, secure storage, and final document destruction should be of paramount concern due to privacy issues. At a minimum an inbound call group needs to be established to help answer employee questions and provide instruction on where to find documents if they are not currently in their possession. Determination of eligibility from the documents can range from simple to complicated, and requires very consistent processing. My recommendation is to outsource the entire project to a vendor. There are a number of them out there who perform this kind of service, with varying degrees of sophistication in their approach. Some will even perform this service ongoing for new enrollments and on a recurring basis for existing dependents. Sorry for the long, rambling reply, but I wanted to try and paint a pretty accurate picture. I am a big proponent of these audits and personally believe that providing proof of eligibility will become a common practice across most health plans in the next few years. I can point you in some resource direction if you want further information. Would you please provide some good resources that provide this service. I have actually doen 1 of these in-house in the past with a much smaller org but am lookinbg to outsource this this yeat Thx

It has been our experience that performing a dependent eligibility audit can be a very financially rewarding project, but folks often underestimate the amount of effort required. Just having the participants fill out a form (essentially amounting to an affidavit) does not produce that great a result. After all, they signed their enrollment forms saying that everything was true and accurate, there isn't much motivation to change their story now. Full audits on the other hand have been known to generate reductions in dependent counts as high as 18%. The lowest percentage I personally have heard of was around 4%. To perform an end to end audit you need to break your plan documents down into specific types of dependents (legal spouse, underage biological child, step child, adopted child, grandchild, QMCSO, etc...) and determine what are the different sets of documentation you will accept as proof of that dependent's current status. For example: To verify a legal spouse you will most likely want proof of marriage (marriage license or certificate, depending on where the marriage occurred) and something proving they are still married, like a current joint filed tax return. The consistent theme for all dependents, regardless of type, should be to collect documents that establish the dependent relationship as well as documents that show the relationship is still in existence. Operationally there is a lot to do with one of these audits. Employee communication is critical to prevent backlash. Document collection, secure storage, and final document destruction should be of paramount concern due to privacy issues. At a minimum an inbound call group needs to be established to help answer employee questions and provide instruction on where to find documents if they are not currently in their possession. Determination of eligibility from the documents can range from simple to complicated, and requires very consistent processing. My recommendation is to outsource the entire project to a vendor. There are a number of them out there who perform this kind of service, with varying degrees of sophistication in their approach. Some will even perform this service ongoing for new enrollments and on a recurring basis for existing dependents. Sorry for the long, rambling reply, but I wanted to try and paint a pretty accurate picture. I am a big proponent of these audits and personally believe that providing proof of eligibility will become a common practice across most health plans in the next few years. I can point you in some resource direction if you want further information.

I am new to employee benefits taxation for residents of Puerto Rico-any light anyone can shed would be greatly appreciated. Are benefits under 125 on a pre-tax basis also pre-tax for Puerto Rico residents? Other benefits? It is my high-level understaning Peurot Rican residents don't pay US federal income taxes Therefore I am trying to understand the tax adaantages of offering a pre-tax flex plan

Is anyone familiar with Hawaii's speciific requirements for medical plans? Please provide a site if possible on further detail Merci!

A question has come up as to what HIPAA disclosures are necessary on a paper enrollment form We are also thinking about utilizing a survey tool to capture the enrollment information for 2007. The employee would log on to a website from either work or home and enter their info , name , ee#, benefit elections and then hit submit. The online tool does not require a userid or PIN Do we need to worry about adding any sepific HIPAA disclosures ? We are including HIPPAA Special Enrollment rights language in our benefits guide

I have a DB plan we are planning on terminating and amending to allow for a lump sum payment option. Plan has a COLA feature on retirement annuity which is eventually capped after so many years. Does one need to factor in the COLA adjustment in valuing the lump sum? Or can one just take the present value of the monthyl accrued benefit at NRA? Thanks Alexa

Under Medicare secondary-payer rules, is there an age limit for actives when Medicare becomes primary? I have an 80 year old actively employed and benefits eligible

Can we put FMLA paperwork for employees in theri benefits file? Or does this violate HIPAA? I assum putting in Personnel file is a nono as well?

For anyone out there who has implemented autoenrollment , do you have any recommedations? Pros? Cons? Lesson learned? What was your avergae time to roll out? thanks

Hewitt, our consultant, did a survey for us Out of 81 plans reporting the followign stats: 1% rate 6% 2% rate 28% 3% rate 49% 4% rate 9% 5% rate 3% 6% rate 5% We will be implementing either 2 likely 3% for a potentail 7/1 rollout For anyone out there who has implemented autoenrollment , do you have any recommedations? What was your avergae time to roll out? thanks

Problem is we still have a problem since retiree himself is only 64 until 12/1 so for next 7 or 8 months must fimd soemthign else for him as well Perhaps putting him in 1 of our better fully-insured active health plans will do the trick- I am checking on that The retiree plan requires you to be eligible for Medicare Parts A &B

Problem is we still have a problem since retiree himself is only 64 until 12/1 so for next 7 or 8 months must fimd soemthign else for him as well Perhaps putting him in 1 of our better fully-insured active health plans will do the trick- I am checking on that

We have a self-insured medical plan. An ex-Exec (who is also continuing to work for us a 1099 Consultant for a period of 5 years) is coming off COBRA As part of an agreement when he terminated employment, lifetime health benefits to he & his spouse on same conditions as a continuing active Exec were promised in wriiting The COBRA 18 month period saved us from having to search for other medical coverage equivalent to our current group plan Our benefits attorney recommended not continuing him on our self-insured plan for discrimination reasons under 105(h) He turns age 65 end of this year. We have a fully-insured retiree plan we can put him on then but problem is spouse is only 56 and can't join that plan until she is Medicare eligible, basically another 9 years Am finding it difficult to get group coverage for just 1 inviidual. Individual conversion plans don't have RX coverage or medical coverage similar to group plan is really hadr to match. Am looking at executive supplemental medical reimbursement insurancepolicy to suppllement How have others handled this situation?

Would anyone have an RFP to do a search for a Trustee thanks

Currently any match on an excess contribution must be forfeited How would that work in a Roth 401k plan where the test fails and Roth 401k amountis to be refunded. Assume plan matches Roth 401k

When must the distribution from the IRA take place by? 4/15 If after that date what penalties apply- is it still 6% excise tax?

How does Form 1099 for 401k plan rollover distribution need to be amended? Thanks

We have an HCE who terminated & rolled his 401k account to IRA that is due a refund due to our test failing What needs to be done to get this out of IRA How is the taxation handled in IRA are there any excise taxes for IRA? thanks

[Do what you would do for an active employee. If you have a plan with an out-of-area coverage option, let the COBRA switch to it. If an active would get a new separate plan, you need to do the same for the COBRA. If it is "too bad, so sad" for an active employee and they would lose coverage access, same goes for the COBRA. I forgot to mention we are part of a controlled group with many health plans, a couple slf-insured and many smaller fully-insured plans. If 1 of these other plans offered covergae in the state the ex-ee is moving to woudl we have to enroll him in that plan to satisfy COBRA? To answer your question about what we are doing for actives in that particular subsidiary, there is noone out of area

We have an ex-employee eligible for COBRA move out of our medical plan coverage ara Do we need to get coverage for him ?

We are looking to consolidate 3 Trustees into 1 for our defined benefit plan. Does anyone have a good RFP for a Trustee serach What type of fiduiciary "due diligence" is necessary in selecting a new Trustee or satying with 1 of the 3?

We just cut checks out of account for excess 401k contributions However, we discovered that abunch of part-timers were inlcuded as eligibles and shouldn't have thereby lowering refunds when test was corrected Can we now put back into plan the excess refunded that shou;dn't have been? thanks