Bill Presson

You are correct.

1. IRA owner Ed takes a withdrawal from IRA. 2. Ed loans the money to Tom with a promise from Tom to repay the loan within 60 days, so that Ed can replace the money in an IRA. 3. Tom uses the money for a real estate development. 4. The entire development and all of Tom's worldly goods are destroyed by Katrina and Tom can't repay the loan. Does Ed get any relief from any of the Katrina related legislation? I don't think so. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks.

The safe harbor provisions are the price for allowing anyone to defer up to the maximum amount allowed each year without worrying about testing. So that's not an issue. But I'm curious about why you feel your quote above is "very discriminatory in favor of the HC"? Especially if everyone is getting a 5% bonus in your example.

Larceny?? What are you talking about? If I'm taking over a John Hancock plan and the employer doesn't have a copy of the basic plan document and I get a copy from someone, I'm committing larceny? Give me a break.

The other thing that has always burned me up about this is the DOL recommending calling three banks. Now, if I did this once, no big deal. Call a couple of time, probably still not a huge issue. But if I called week after week, how long before the bankers tell me where to go? It's not in their business plan to constantly supply the pension industry with comparative data so that the participants don't have to go to the bank. This has always struck me as one of the stupidest "requirements".

If only I hadn't used my real name, maybe.... :-)

Lori, My second favorite thing to do is "beat up" auditors. :-) Can you give us an online summary?

Sorry, but S-Corp dividends aren't considered earned income. Unless you had W-2 income, you can't make a deductible contribution.

Yes, the money was taken from the employer's checking account.

I think you should do whatever you can to pay the fee and get the designations. If you are employed now, will your employer not pay the membership fee?

I don't believe so. I think in this case, we need to look at something that would be a functional equivalent. Offsetting fees for the employer (or the plan) would, in effect, provide the same benefit.

It has been installed as a printer choice. So, now I can choose that specific printer, rather than my default printer. Here's the error I'm getting, "Postscript printer drivers are not supported for Non-EFAST forms. Please select a non-Postscript driver using Print Setup under the File menu.". I've had this error before, when trying to use my HP Laser Jet 4000 printer. The fix was to add a print driver for HP Laserjet IIIsi, point it to my 4000, name it something unique then use that printer for my default printer. But when I do that to the CutePDF printer, it starts printing to the printer. I know this is complicated and more than what a message board might be expected to do, so I don't expect you to work on trying to get an answer. I posted this more in case someone that's already had this problem might be able to suggest something. But, I do thank you for your help, and the suggestion to use CutePDF!!

Well, I'm not sure what to do to get around this problem, because I haven't had it. Have you installed it just as a printer choice? That's what we have. So, instead of printing to the HP laser, I choose CutePDF and print. I know that isn't technical and I'll keep looking to see if I can get an answer.

Here's the free version. Works great. http://www.cutepdf.com/Products/CutePDF/writer.asp

old comparability = target benefit

How much are you going to charge to do the work? (rhetorical) How much is the dividend? (again rhetorical) Now are you sure there aren't any consulting fees that can be charged?

We started with Relius in 2000 and still have all plans on the system. Haven't noticed a slow down, but it might be so incremental that we wouldn't notice it. I'm very hesitant about removing any of the plans. We've considered the Relius disaster recovery (which uses the ASP model), but since we currently have a firm wide disaster recovery, we wouldn't get any big benefit at this time. I think it would be very worthwhile for a standalone TPA though.

Thanks for the suggestions.

We've suggested the participant's ask for the info, but you know how successful that usually is. A lot of the health coverage has web access, but a big part of the problem is for additional services that might not ever be filed with insurance. Thanks for the response.

Is anyone else having trouble with the invoices/receipts that doctor's offices are now providing? Most don't give the date of service any more, just an invoice date, which they will say is always the date of service. And many are now just getting a check, having it paid electronically and giving the check back as the receipt! How is everyone setting the standards for what they will accept and what they won't? We're getting a lot of pressure from participants because the doctors just don't give the standard information any more.

Pete, Sometimes you get the shinbone of a saint and sometimes you get the jawbone of an ass! :-)

We use a product called File in Time. It is primarily designed for CPA's, but is pretty flexible. You can see information on it at www.timevalue.com.

FYI, Kentucky does have licensing for TPA's.