Bill Presson

The cash value is already an asset in the plan. If the plan surrenders the policy, the cash value gets reinvested based on the plan rules, whether it's trustee directed or participant directed. The plan is listed as the owner of the policy, right?

I'm pretty sure that EZ filings and SF filings checked as one participant plans aren't available on EFAST.

Why is a 32 person db plan having an audit?

Are you actually doing recordkeeping or just providing TPA services?

Not a bad idea but we've done one for each year each time we've done this.

What facts were mistaken? Some forms have a box for % of pay and another for straight $ amount. He mught have thought he was filling out the box for $50 and put it into the 50%. Just throwing it out there not that I actially believe it. Like you Im not sure where mistake of fact might come in on this one. While not a mistake of fact, that might be something I would recommend the employer look to help fix. A 50% deferral is a little outside the norm.

Peter, they are firms that are starting to provide Plan Administrator services, but that still doesn't excuse an employer from performing their own duties. We have clients of all sizes and some of them are in this arena: very small and so busy they have almost no time available on a daily basis. What we do in that situation is have an agreement with the employer as to how and how often we will contact him. We only reach out when action is required. And we send a letter/email but follow up with a quick call. In return the employer has to promise that he will read and act in those limited times. Maybe a discussion like that would save your client time and expense in switching?

This is what was formerly known as a SAS 70. It's a standard request by every CPA firm for an audited plan. If you are doing daily recordkeeping you should have this done each year, but it can be pricey if you only have a few clients. It allows the CPA firm to reduce the amount of work they test during the audit so it saves your client money.

What facts were mistaken?

I would have the employer estimate anything that was a required entry on the form otherwise it will kick out. Just have them document the reasoning behind the estimates.

Our firm has been heavily involved in this for our clients. I believe that the FSA is not an excepted benefit in this case because of the example you cite. But remember that there is not very much guidance here. This is an example if weighing the risk/reward in deciding whether to report or not.

I would file from the first year and have the employer give their best estimates. We just went through a similar situation with an employer that had a tough time with their early records. Their first year was 1992. I feel your pain.

Using plan assets to buy a typical fidelity bond protecting the plan is pretty standard. But I'm confused as to why State Street needs the plan to do this? As a corporate trustee/custodian, they should have a several million dollar bond in place and I'm pretty sure they are exempt from having to get a bond for each plan.

Are the benefits insured? I assume so, but can you verify. Is there a wrap document? I'm assuming not, but verify. If you don't know what it is, you don't have one. So assuming you have insured benefits, you then determine which ones have 100 or more participants at the beginning of the year. For each benefit that meets that requirement, you have to file a 5500.

The education can be obtained without the initials. The initials are important for different reasons. When I was atarting out in my twenties, the QPA was important to allow clients to presume my competency while giving me time to prove it. At this stage of my career, I don't need the initials to give me that time. My reputation does. I got the ERPA because I needed the ability to represent clients with a power of atty. That wasn't for the initials or education. So I was wondering.

BG, other than the initials and education, are you getting anything else out of the CPC? I got my ERPA earlier this year and debating on whether I would ever try to get anything else.

Find new attorneys. Seriously.

Here's what we tell clients (and our internal CPA staff). Hope this helps: The requirements for filing a Form 5500 for a welfare plan are very often misunderstood. Examples of welfare plans include: medical, dental and vision plans, long term and short term disability plans, group term life insurance, flexible spending accounts, accidental death and dismemberment insurance and prescription drug plans. Other plans may also qualify, but these are the most common. While many plans are required to file, the first step is to see if the plan is exempt. The following plans are exempt from filing: governmental and church plans, workers’ compensation or unemployment compensation plans, voluntary “employee pays all” plans (with some exceptions) and plans that meet the Small Plan Exception. Small Plan Exception: If a plan has fewer than 100 participants at the beginning of the plan year and is unfunded or insured, then no 5500 is required. Participants mean employees actually covered under the plan and do not include spouses and dependents. Individuals that are eligible but not enrolled are not included. An unfunded plan means that benefits are paid from the employer’s general assets. An insured plan means that benefits are paid through policies of insurance OTHER than stop-loss insurance. A plan can be a combination of unfunded and insured. If the plan does not meet any of the exceptions, then a 5500 must be filed and a summary annual report provided to each participant covered under the plan. The confusion generally started in 2001 when a requirement for cafeteria plans to file a 5500 using Schedule F was dropped. However, the requirement for the underlying welfare benefits (insurance, etc) did not change.

Our whole company uses Sharefile and really like it. We have about 25 people in our benefits group and 850 employees over all. I think you'll be happy with it.

Our parent company is a CPA firm. We hire interns all the time. Our eligibility for deferrals is first of the calendar quarter after hire, but our plan excludes interns not expected to work for more than 4 months. (match, etc is 1 year). We just have to test the coverage and if they do work more than 1000 hours in 12 months, they become eligible for the deferral and match. Some are hired for multiple internships, so this happens from time to time. I would think most large CPA or other professional firms recruiting colleges pretty hard would have something similar. BTW, I've never heard the "not allowed to provide benefits" excuse. Nice.

We're consulting on the employer mandate and other issues related to ACA. It's mostly because we're part of a CPA firm and the firm needs to offer this to our clients. But I don't see us doing anything related to ongoing compliance. Then again, I didn't see us doing this either.

Of course. The documents need to be done correctly, but this is done quite often.

Well, if I recall correctly, and incorrectly filed Form 5500 is deemed "not filed" for statute of limitations purposes, hence the statute "never runs." Arguably, "amending" a 5500 by definition means the original was not correct, so I would suggest, until the "corrected" amended 5500 is filed, the statute never actually began to run. Interesting. So if the IRS looked at a 5500 that was theoretically past the statute of limitations, but found an error, the statute never really ran to begin with?

Thanks to both for getting me down the right road and for the attachment! edited to add: this is for an outside, independent director. Mr. Gulia, please call me Bill.

I really hate trying to wade through the prohibited transaction issues. Just so you know. Not looking for chapter and verse here, just whether I'm headed in the right direction. Is a trustee/director of a mutual fund allowed to purchase that fund using assets of his self directed 401(k) account? I can't decide if it's really a retirement plan potential prohibited transaction or an issue that would cause a problem for the director regarding his independence on the board. Thanks.