Dave Baker

Feline equivalent of "nose to the grindstone" perhaps.

On balance, I think it's worth having questions come in from participants and beneficiaries (and ex-spouses) because we're often able to do so much good for many of these folks. The message boards are picked up by Google, so people find us. My thinking has been that having public message boards is better on balance than having private message boards, though certainly a members-only model would have some benefits. Others who find us via Google are employers (some of whom are potential clients) and other benefits professionals (who may be sources for referrals). In order to register, one has to answer the question, "What is the name of the federal law governing employee benefit plans that was signed into law by President Gerald Ford on Labor Day in 1974?" The idea is to weed out the folks who aren't sincerely interested in getting help. It prolly takes only a quick Google search, but still... The occasional rudeness goes with the territory nowadays.... I know the best strategy is to refrain from feeding the trolls, but I often get hooked by some anonymous comment on Twitter and rant back. Perhaps people are short-tempered in part due to the virus. I know I am getting sick of my cat climbing on the keyboard and pressing random keys. Sometimes it's just the inherent difficulty of communicating via text, without the benefit of tone of voice or facial expression. Did I read somewhere that the latter two factors make up something like 80% of the content in communication? But I also can't blame a person who just wants to ask a question or make a point without all the ribbons and powder, whether or not it comes across as gruff. Free country, and all that. Remember that if you ever regret a post, you can go back and edit it or even delete it (or let me know, if you don't yet have such super powers on account of your moderator or senior contributor status). Would it be a good idea to come up with standard disclaimer language, though, to which we could link when answering questions from non-professionals? I'm thinking that a link could appear at the bottom of each reply in a message thread that was started by a non-professional -- something like: "WARNING: All of my comments and other information are provided as a courtesy only. While I hope they are helpful and believe they are accurate, they are offered with no guarantee of their accuracy either in general or in the questioner's particular circumstances. Often there are other relevant and important facts and circumstances that have not been asked or discussed, for example, which would affect their accuracy. They are provided on the express condition that the questioner should not and cannot rely upon them as legal advice from me or any firm with which I am affiliated. You should seek independent legal counsel if you would like advice upon which you can rely, for which you'll probably need to pay a fee."

Hi, Tom! I am still 37, however, having decided to get off the merry-go-round aging thing back when I started the web site. Have gone from being a Boomer to being a Millennial, and closing in on Gen X. 25 years. How can it be? Until we got your note, Lois and I had forgotten about the date!

Hmm. I'm not aware of anything in Rev. Proc. 2011-44 or Rev. Proc. 2011-4 that says a plan cannot be merely in proposed form, and PLRs typically are sought for proposed transactions rather than a done deal ... and yet the point of Rev. Proc. 2011-44 was to add a requirement that "interested persons" be notified of the ruling request, such as plan participants, of which there would be none in a proposed plan situation... Hmm. Certainly the IRS continues to issue church plan rulings, such as this one from January -- https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-wd/202001008.pdf Does anybody happen to follow these church plan PLRs regularly, who has seen one that addresses a plan that is proposed rather than already-adopted? Maybe you could make a phone call to Laura Warshawsky, who is the author of the above-cited recent PLR.

Coming up in a few minutes in today's Retirement Plans Newsletter: http://www.wnj.com/Publications/Act-Now-to-Determine-Treatment-of-COVID-19-Sick-an "Starting April 1, 2020, certain employees are entitled to receive sick pay and leave pay related to COVID-19 under the newly enacted Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act and the Emergency Family and Medical Leave Expansion Act. It is critical that employers quickly determine how to properly treat these payments for purposes of their retirement plans. These payments may affect both defined contribution plans and defined benefit plans. However, the impact is immediate for defined contribution plans with elective deferrals because the company payroll system must be programmed to properly account for these new types of pay before the first payroll in April 2020 that may include these new sick and leave payments. "Whether these new sick and leave payments are compensation for contribution and accrual purposes depends on the plan’s definition of creditable or plan compensation. [more text, omitted]

If one is in an integration optimizing mood, this might be fun to play with: https://benefitslink.com/cgi-bin/inte-greater/ I wrote it around 1992, using a nifty boxed Turbo Pascal programming kit I found in the clearance section at Office Depot. Businesses had stopped writing their own software programs for their Radio Shack computers and IBM PCs. I had fun with the programming and wrote the "Inte-Greater." Later on, I decided to see if I'd enjoy making something called a "web site" when the World Wide Web thingie got big in 1995 ?

Kewl. All seems to be working. You want to set up a poll/survey?

@RatherBeGolfing - And lo, it was so. Please post a reply here, and see if your status (shown under your user name, at the left side of your posted reply) changes from "Registered User" to "Senior Contributor" -- I am setting up a system whereby a Registered User becomes a Senior Contributor automatically when the 1,000th post is posted. A Senior Contributor will be able to create a poll. You should see a new "tab" that appears when you click on the "Start New Topic" button which appears on almost all web pages. The default tab is for posting a new topic as before, but the other tab will enable a Senior Contributor to create a poll. (I haven't found a way to automatically promote all Registered Users who already have 1,000 or more posts, but upon making another post a Registered User is supposed to be auto-promoted.) A person whose title is "Moderator" (regardless of the number of posts) also has this ability

This reminds me of my most glorious case. A local fellow in Florida had been sent the wrong version of an SPD for a welfare benefit plan, after he had asked the HR department to send him an SPD. It said he would get a benefit if he met "X" conditions described in the SPD. So he quit, relying on the fact that he had met those conditions. His claim for benefits is denied. "But lady..." he says. -- "Sorry, bud, that's not what our SPD says", they say. "But mine says..." he protests. -- "Well, that's not the current version. You're looking at an old version" they respond. -- "But lady, then you must have sent me this old one when I asked you to send me an SPD, just before I quit in reliance on what I had read in the booklet." HR responds, "I don't think that happened, sir. You must have had an old version already that you got mixed up, and, frankly, we can't honor your claim because we would be vulnerable to fraudulent claims by people who say they are in a similar situation. You'd need to be able to prove that you were sent the old version." He comes to see me. I meet with him, take the stamped envelope in which the SPD came, hand-addressed to him by the HR department. I tell him this will be a tough one, and I'll get back to him. I write a long letter to the plan administrator, complete with the law on detrimental reliance (which basically shoehorns these claims into an "interpretation of the plan document" theory -- which is weak, but it often worked, ironically due to an SPD case I had argued and won in the Eleventh Circuit, which I "mentioned" in my letter). I get a response that's basically what he had been told, again saying the plan formerly included the conditions he says he's relying on, but frankly they can't honor a possibly fraudulent claim and there's just not enough evidence here for the plan administrator to grant the claim. A few days later, I'm looking at the file again. The sunlight from my south-facing window catches the shiny cover of the SPD. I tilt the booklet at an angle and behold -- I see an impression of the client's name and address, essentially embossed in the shiny cover of the SPD. The person in the HR department had used a ball-point pen that had pressed through the envelope and onto the SPD cover, where there was an exact copy of the name and address that had been written on the date-stamped envelope. So the envelope matched the SPD, proving the old version had been sent to him on the date of the postmark on the envelope. I write to the plan administrator and tell them what I've discovered. They grant the claim. I should find the 20-year-old file and confirm that I'm remembering all the facts accurately, but this is the gist of it. Or how I want to remember it, anyway ? The client was enormously grateful, and the "extra" benefit made a huge difference in his quality of life.

Applied a patch -- could you check again and let me know (here) if it's been fixed? Thanks!

Here is another IRS news release, which contains information about various changes to limitations other than those the apply to pensions. IRS provides tax inflation adjustments for tax year 2020 IR-2019-180 WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service today announced the tax year 2020 annual inflation adjustments for more than 60 tax provisions, including the tax rate schedules and other tax changes. Revenue Procedure 2019-44 provides details about these annual adjustments. The tax law change covered in the revenue procedure was added by the Taxpayer First Act of 2019, which increased the failure to file penalty to $330 for returns due after the end of 2019. The new penalty will be adjusted for inflation beginning with tax year 2021. The tax year 2020 adjustments generally are used on tax returns filed in 2021. The tax items for tax year 2020 of greatest interest to most taxpayers include the following dollar amounts: The standard deduction for married filing jointly rises to $24,800 for tax year 2020, up $400 from the prior year. For single taxpayers and married individuals filing separately, the standard deduction rises to $12,400 in for 2020, up $200, and for heads of households, the standard deduction will be $18,650 for tax year 2020, up $300. The personal exemption for tax year 2020 remains at 0, as it was for 2019, this elimination of the personal exemption was a provision in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Marginal Rates: For tax year 2020, the top tax rate remains 37% for individual single taxpayers with incomes greater than $518,400 ($622,050 for married couples filing jointly). The other rates are: 35%, for incomes over $207,350 ($414,700 for married couples filing jointly); 32% for incomes over $163,300 ($326,600 for married couples filing jointly); 24% for incomes over $85,525 ($171,050 for married couples filing jointly); 22% for incomes over $40,125 ($80,250 for married couples filing jointly); 12% for incomes over $9,875 ($19,750 for married couples filing jointly). The lowest rate is 10% for incomes of single individuals with incomes of $9,875 or less ($19,750 for married couples filing jointly). For 2020, as in 2019 and 2018, there is no limitation on itemized deductions, as that limitation was eliminated by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The Alternative Minimum Tax exemption amount for tax year 2020 is $72,900 and begins to phase out at $518,400 ($113,400 for married couples filing jointly for whom the exemption begins to phase out at $1,036,800).The 2019 exemption amount was $71,700 and began to phase out at $510,300 ($111,700, for married couples filing jointly for whom the exemption began to phase out at $1,020,600). The tax year 2020 maximum Earned Income Credit amount is $6,660 for qualifying taxpayers who have three or more qualifying children, up from a total of $6,557 for tax year 2019. The revenue procedure contains a table providing maximum credit amounts for other categories, income thresholds and phase-outs. For tax year 2020, the monthly limitation for the qualified transportation fringe benefit is $270, as is the monthly limitation for qualified parking, up from $265 for tax year 2019. For the taxable years beginning in 2020, the dollar limitation for employee salary reductions for contributions to health flexible spending arrangements is $2,750, up $50 from the limit for 2019. For tax year 2020, participants who have self-only coverage in a Medical Savings Account, the plan must have an annual deductible that is not less than $2,350, the same as for tax year 2019; but not more than $3,550, an increase of $50 from tax year 2019. For self-only coverage, the maximum out-of-pocket expense amount is $4,750, up $100 from 2019. For tax year 2020, participants with family coverage, the floor for the annual deductible is $4,750, up from $4,650 in 2019; however, the deductible cannot be more than $7,100, up $100 from the limit for tax year 2019. For family coverage, the out-of-pocket expense limit is $8,650 for tax year 2020, an increase of $100 from tax year 2019. For tax year 2020, the adjusted gross income amount used by joint filers to determine the reduction in the Lifetime Learning Credit is $118,000, up from $116,000 for tax year 2019. For tax year 2020, the foreign earned income exclusion is $107,600 up from $105,900 for tax year 2019. Estates of decedents who die during 2020 have a basic exclusion amount of $11,580,000, up from a total of $11,400,000 for estates of decedents who died in 2019. The annual exclusion for gifts is $15,000 for calendar year 2020, as it was for calendar year 2019. The maximum credit allowed for adoptions for tax year 2020 is the amount of qualified adoption expenses up to $14,300, up from $14,080 for 2019.

BenefitsLink Retirement Plan Newsletter subscribers had a special bulletin issue in their email inboxes at about 10:16 a.m. The online archived copy of the bulletin is at https://benefitslink.com/newsletters/2019/2019_11_06_retirement_bulletin.html Be sure you're a subscriber -- there is no cost -- by using our online sign-up form (click).

BenefitsLink Retirement Plan Newsletter subscribers had a special bulletin issue in their email inboxes at about 10:16 a.m. The online archived copy of the bulletin is at https://benefitslink.com/newsletters/2019/2019_11_06_retirement_bulletin.html Be sure you're a subscriber -- there is no cost -- by using our online sign-up form (click).

BenefitsLink Retirement Plan Newsletter subscribers had a special bulletin issue in their email inboxes at about 10:16 a.m. The online archived copy of the bulletin is at https://benefitslink.com/newsletters/2019/2019_11_06_retirement_bulletin.html Be sure you're a subscriber -- there is no cost -- by using our online sign-up form (click).

BenefitsLink Retirement Plan Newsletter subscribers had a special bulletin issue in their email inboxes at about 10:16 a.m. The online archived copy of the bulletin is at https://benefitslink.com/newsletters/2019/2019_11_06_retirement_bulletin.html Be sure you're a subscriber -- there is no cost -- by using our online sign-up form (click).

Text of the proposed rule: https://benefitslink.com/news/index.cgi/view/20191022-153725 Text of DOL Fact Sheet: https://benefitslink.com/news/index.cgi/view/20191022-153729

More coverage: https://benefitslink.com/news/index.cgi/view/20191020-153691

Please use this message thread for replies: https://benefitslink.com/boards/index.php?/topic/64920-in-service-distribution-of-employer-stock-fund-only/

This question and other answers appear at:

The age threshold is down to 50 now. Or perhaps lower if you identify as a senior ?

NJ Mike, do you have another link to the article? The one in your message is producing a "page not found" error. Thanks!

Tom, I hope you will continue to be a frequent contributor to the "Humor, Inspiration, Miscellaneous" message board! Retirement -- what a concept. Now you've got me to thinking that maybe I should start setting aside some savings. Your posts have been tremendously valuable, and fun. Thank you so much for being so generous. Dude. Congratulations!

See https://benefitslink.com/boards/index.php?/topic/64367-overfunded-pension-in-a-divorce/

Thanks, Bob! See the attached graphic. This is what it looks like on my PC's monitor. If your monitor is small (or the particular window showing the message boards on your screen is small), the message boards search feature might be scrunched into the form of a single magnifying glass icon.

Wouldn't it be useful to view all topics started by a particular member, or to which the member has contributed (i.e., added a reply message)? For example, if you find Texas attorney Luke Bailey's contributions to be particularly valuable to you, you can use the message boards search engine to generate a list such as this one (click). You can get a similar list for any member -- here's one way. When you're reading a topic on the message boards, click on the member's display name (displayed next to each message). Then click on the resulting "See Their Activity" button. Another way, if you know the member's display name: use the message boards search engine (which, if you're using a desktop monitor, will appear as a box toward the top left of each page on the message boards, with a magnifying glass icon in it, and the word Search...). Click the word "Search..." in that box Click the "More Options" radio button Click Members Enter the display name of the member that you see being used here on the message boards (sometimes it's a full name, sometimes it's a "handle" of one or more words) Click the magnifying glass You'll get a screen that includes a box with brief bio information about the matching member, with a "Find Content" button for you to click. Fetch a fresh cup of coffee and begin browsing the accumulated wisdom graciously contributed by that member to the employee benefits community!