Gary

To be more specific. Say a salaried ee makes $5,000/wk. He makes this if he works 40 or 50 or 60 hrs that week. However, in counting hours worked. Is it 40, since salaried or is he credited with the 50 ro 60 hrs for purposes of crediting for vesting?

a plan credits hrs of svc based on actual hrs an ee is paid or entitled to payment. If a salaried ee works overtime, say over 40 hrs in a week, is he credited (for benefit accrual and vesting purposes) with all the hrs worked? That is, is he credited with the hrs above 40 also?

Does anyone know of suggested publications that pertain to the development of the various most common mortality tables, what the purpose and relevance of each of the tables are. Just background information to have on the subject. How the tables relate to one another. Pax if you respond, if it is not too much trouble I would like to be able to respond to you by email. Thank you, Gary.

I left a company. I requested a lump sum of my benefit. The lump sum was calculated based on age nearest birthday (plan historically administered this way) at time of distribution. My age nearest birthday increased by a year prior to the distribution date. However the plan administrator paid my lump sum based on my younger age. I submitted a claim stating that I am entitled to an additional lump sum payment, since my age increased by time of distribution. Any thoughts. P.S. payment was made about 9 days after I attained my next age nearest birthday.

When amending a pension plan to be a cash balance plan, are there any known restrictions w/r to determining the present value of benefit in order to arrive at an initial account balance? One plan used a rate of 9%, which seems high, considering that when a plan pays a lump sum, there are maximum allowable rates.

Thanks for your response PAX. I would like more info on this. I will go to SOA.org as well. I am interested in obtaining the table as a minimum, but would also like to see the article. I do not have the that volume of the transactions.

how would one arrive at an annual rate of interest that is equivalent to the average of a 1 year treasury and a 30 yr US gov't bond yield for the period of 10/ - 9/30 prior to the subsequent calendar year? I don't know where to find the 1 yr rates and i believe i would need to take the avg of 12 mos of 30 yr US gov bond yields. Look forward to any comments.

does anyone know how to obtain or how to derive a 83 Group Annuity Mortallity table projected with Scale H to 1988? And can anyone explain what this table means?

A plan amended the definition of compensation as of 1/1/96. An employee terminated in 1997. The plan sponsor interprets the employee's accrued benefit using the new def. of compensation for the years 1993 to 1997. However should the old def. of comp. be used for 1993,4 and 5 compensation, or is it reasonable to use the new def. which results in a lower avg. comp.

I have some materials(several pages) relating to applicability of ERISA to gov. plans. If you are interested I can mail or FAX this info. It says Gov plans are exempt from Title I (reporting and disclosure) and Title IV( PBGC term rules). However, Title II(Amendments to IRC) exempts gov. plans only where the IRC states so. The ERISA exemption to Title III was not granted to gov plans either.

I know a person who is a federal employee w/ the postal service. This person wants his pension reviewed. ERISA provides the emplyee w/ the right to review plan documents in the private sector. Does anyone know of the process in order to review a federal pension/ Or is there any formal procedure and can it be done? Does someone just ask for documents, eventhough there is no formal legislation providing that right?

ERISA sectio 104 provides for an employee to review plan documents in order to check their pension entitlement. I know someone who is a federal employee w/ the postal service. Does anyone know the procedure for getting documents to review the pension from that type of plan. Or if there is anything specific. Perhaps one can request the documents anyway, but the person wouldn't have ERISA provisions supporting them. Any comments appreciated.

I agree with Pax, 414(h) applies to governmental employer "pickup" plans, not relevant to private employer plans.

If a plan is terminating and will have excess assets, one option is to transfer the surplus into a post-retirement health benefits account. I would like to know exactly what is meant or howi t's designed, with regard to the health benefits account being part of the plan (as a requirement)?

The company went bankrupt, the plan was terminated and purchased annuities for all participants and when a participant retires I would think that the participant would get all benefit option info from ins. co. So wouldn't it make sense that the ins. co. is maintaining the plan or is it done some other way?

A pension plan was terminated and purchased annuities through an insurance co. about 12 yrs ago. Can a person still have rights to obtain plan documents and review his pension calc. Is the insurance co. the trustee who has all files and responsibility of administering plan in accordance w/ provisions? And do we request such documents from the ins. co. in same manner as if it were the plan sponsor? ------------------

ERISA Plans are covered under provisions allowing plan participants the right to request plan documents for their own review. Is anyone aware of such provisions under gov. plans?

ERISA S. 104(B)(4) provides the participant the right to request plan documents necessary to review their pension benefit. Does anyone know if there is such a law (either w/in ERISA, DOL, IRS,IRC,etc.) that provides this right to a participant of a governmental plan.

Judy Diamond is a service that provides basic information about DB Pension Plans and the plan sponsors. Does anyone know of a less expensive way to obtain this type of information . i.e. plan name, contact person, funding level, plan liabilities, etc.

Anyone know where I can get PBGC rates for present values for single employer plan terms, prior to 1994?

A plan provides the following for post 65 accruals. Age 65 benefit is to be converted to a lump sum, then increased with interest to actual ret. and then converted to a equiv ben @ actual ret. The first question is, this actuarial increase doesn't seem to comply w/ regs. The regs seem to instruct us to compare the act equiv w/ the actual accrual after every plan year and then at actual ret. Any thoughts? Anyway, trying to interpret the plan, I have the following questions. If age 65 lump sum is accum w. interest to actual ret, s/ it be accumulated w/ the lump sum interest set forth in plan or act equiv. for all other benefits? And lastly, when the benefit is converted @ actual ret to an equiv annuity, (it doesn't specify) s/ benefit be converted using lump sum rates or act equiv rates for plan benefits other than lump sums?

does anyone know where one can find GATT 30 yr treasury rates prior to 1996, and PBGC rates prior to 1994? These are for single employer plan lump sum distributions. Thanks

Thanks derek. Does that mean a owner can just open a bank account (like a money mkt) as long as it is in trust agreement?

Chester, thank you for your response. So, in other words, you can use a low interest rate as long as the IRS provides a favorable determination. I believe that it is reasonable to use the lump sum rate for post ret interest in the val., especially if most are expected to take lump sum.

Paul,Thank you for your response. Under the 1st method, using aggregate cost method, would it be PVFB-CV@ret.-plan assets funded over working life; recomputed each year? Under 2nd method if there is no pre ret mortality, is it simply funding for the ret benefit and carving out the premiums from the total cost? i.e. total pvfb or AL is the same as if there were no death benefit?