TPApril

401k small plan sponsor has just decided to terminate plan by end of year. Plan up to date on amendments but they no longer have a plan attorney. They will not be filing a DL. Is it acceptable to just create a plan resolution to terminate from a template?

What are the implications of 12/31 for a company whose fiscal year is 6/30 and would like to start up a pension plan? ie do they need to start it up by 12/31 to take any kind of 2012 deduction or is that irrelevant due to the fiscal year?

What's the general approach to including attachments for Schedule H lines 4i and 4j - separate the attachment from audited financials and attach that, or a one page grid form which states "See audited financials". reason i ask is a prior firm used the second option for my new client's 2010 form but i have never before done that or seen that. i've always included actual attachment. is this a reason to amend 2010?

Same topic, but as related to Defined Benefit Plans - should participants who retire, generally after ssa age, and begin receiving their monthly benefits be reported as 'D', or can they be ignored?

In a sense then, there is an argument to not report it, but the reality is they didn't necessarily do their due diligence on their end to make sure it was deposited. I would add to the information above that total late deposit is $399 and lost earnings to current are $4.99.

As I much as I know the answer to my question, I thought I would throw it out there for any comments... Small company has never deposited 401(k) late. In 2011, one check was lost in the mail and no one noticed it until reconciling year end accounts four months later (there were three payrolls that month so everything appeared normal on quick glance). So contributions were late and now must be reported on 5500, and lost earnings restored to trust. My question is - is the company's record of having written the first check enough to not treat it as a reportable late contribution?

Another simple question - does an owner pay lost earnings on his/her own late 401(k) deposit?

Yes, we are doing a self correction and have increased some pension payments by small amounts and want to calculate the interest on the amount that was underpaid from date of retirement to current.

Payroll is based on the 15th of every month, but paydate is actually the 20th. For reviewing whether 401k deposits are late, is it correct that we would use the 20th since that is the actual date the monies are separated?

What's the current interest rate used for calculating interest on underpmts from a pension plan? I saw it was to use the 30 year pbgc rate as of 1/1 for each year to 2008 but what is 2009 since?

You might want to consider another method of searching old forms, such as paying for a subscription service that gives you access (I don't do so so cannot recommend one). reason I say this is as I recall, freeerisa doesn't give many forms before 2009 anymore and clients I look up also have 2001-2002 but nothing until 2009. Another option, why not call the IRS Office of Public Disclosure at 202-693-8673 and maybe they can help tell you which years have not been filed. Whether that initializes an inquiry I don't know.

This is along the same theme of calculating final average earnings based on five consecutive years where the plan document leaves a lot to be desired (or interpreted) for the first and last years of calculation. In this case, FAE is defined as the average of ee's Monthly Comp. Monthly Comp is defined as 1/12 of W-2 pay while participating in the plan. In this plan, participant can get partial year credit for months worked during the year. The way the prior actuaries calculated FAE was to count actual months of first year (when under 5 yrs) and then no consistency for last year. If the total was less than 60 months, then sometimes they counted actual months in last year, sometimes they counted 12. If there were greater than 5 years worked, then they always counted 12 months for the final year (if comp was greater than 5 years earlier). Makes sense for those longer employees, but I have no clue which is the best approach for the shorter term employees. I'm dizzy and will apparently be correcting for about half of those who have less than five full years of comp. Any thoughts?

I was under the impression that bundled providers were to provide separate, to some extent, fees that are related to basic TPA roles such as compliance testing and Form 5500. I am reading one such disclosure. For services it refers reader to an unattached, previously provided, document called 'Recordkeeping and Administrative Services Agreement'. It then says 'Consistent with this “packaged” structure, the compensation and fees we receive are not broken out into a fee for each specific service we provide.' I may be naive but it would seem that such providers would have different cost structures whether the plan is bundled or not which would make this easy to disclose. I also thought this was required by 408(b)(2). Is this disclosure really sufficient?

Just rephrasing prior question. ERISA Plan transitions to fully voluntary, not run through cafeteria plan, post tax payments made through payroll. Can this plan simply stop filing 5500? The closest thing we have found to a company endorsement is that the enrollment form says the company name. Is that right there enough to disqualify plan from safe harbor, thereby requiring 5500 filing?

I'm not familiar with the manual option of using an actual handwritten signature to submit a 5500. My question is: If a Form is signed and dated on one day (10/15), but efast2 shows a later date as submitted (10/20), is the form considered late?

Any recommendations on general resources for issues related to health & welfare plan documents, 5500's, schedule A's and other similar issues?

It sounds like if a voluntary plan is run through the cafeteria plan, it is a form of an endorsement and therefore an ERISA plan. Consider a plan that is not part of the cafeteria plan. It was formerly paid by the employer which transitioned to completely voluntary in 2010. Since then they have continued to file Form 5500 with the same plan number, as well as maintain the same plan name (including plan sponsor name) on employee handouts. They will therefore be filing 5500 through 2012. Can they transition effective 2013 to a non-ERISA plan that no longer files Form 5500 if they change the plan name and no longer endorse it, thereby falling into the Safe Harbor discussed in the links above? If so, can they go so far as checking off Final Form for 2012?

Background: DB PLan SPD correctly states that any retiring participant, single or married, may elect an alternate beneficiary for joint and survivor options, with instructions that if married, must provide the election notarized. No other clear instructions or form. When employee retires, this option is not communicated on retirement paperwork. Question: Plan intends to move forward and communicate this information for new retirees, however, does the plan need to go back in time and offer this to all existing retirees?

When a company exceeds 100 ee's, and there are two medical carriers in the medical plan, each with under 100 ee's, do they start to file 5500? for that matter, if they are now filing for one benefit, but another benefit has less than 100 ee's covered altogether, does that one file too? with growth projected to be slow, would they wait then before creating a wrapped plan or create one now and file all benefits, even though some have less than 100, even when adding up the different carriers?

Just confirming my understanding of this thread as related to a different case. Once benefits are set up as a cafeteria plan, then all forms of benefit should file a Schedule A, even if some have less than 100 participants? in this situation, plan sponsor went over 100 employees in 2010 so 2011 is first filing. Only one of the four carriers have over 100 ee's. They are setting up a wrap plan, so that is correct they file all four Schedule A's at this time? Or can they not create wrap plan and file only for the one benefit and wait to the first year at least one other carrier has over 100 ee's?

I noticed there are several providers out there, Cigna for one, who are not providing participant counts for Schedule A. Their letters make reference to other reports. I know this might be nitpicky but is this reference sufficient for the final Schedule A question asking if the insurance company failed to provide information necessary for Schedule A? I'm thinking it is indeed sufficient, but it goes against the spirit of providing information consolidated for the benefit of the policy holder.

in a defined benefit plan for a small family owned company, in preparing an allocation of the db contribution, is it possible that the owner may appear to have over 100% of compensation put into db/dc plans, as long as the 25%/31% limit is being met on total compensation? This situation involves owner, spouse, child where only owner maxes out comp.

hmmm...they say, 'think before you speak'. what about 'read your email before you post a question on a bulletin board'? Just went through my inbox and found an asppa update that says the issue may be resolved sooner rather than later and to just hold off if possible filing the extension.

Has there been clarification on who an "Authorized representative" is that can sign Form 5558 for the 8955-SSA portion? I know ASPPA submitted a letter 11/21/2011 requesting that the requirement be removed but I cannot determine that it has been so removed. So I guess i'm wondering to what an extent a tpa is considered an 'authorized representative' and can sign on behalf of client.

ESOP Guy - thanks. Unfortunately, the carryforward of 2010 into 2011 means there are nondeductible amounts two years in a row. At least 2011 is not late. I am advising client first to not make fourth quarter payments anymore, until such a time as plan can be amended to apply forfeiture in the year after. So what you are saying is, include Tax with 5330 filing, but do not include penalty and interest until contacted. Fortunately the net total amounts are relatively small (under $250), not that client will be happy to learn this.