JanetM

I was asked about these not long ago. The only points I made to employee were the following. ETFs trade like funds during the day, not mutual funds at end of day. Only couple of providers offer this sort of platform (Invest N Retire is one) for 401K plans and they have related costs. Alternative is brokerage windows with participants incurring fees on each trade (as opposed to bundled trade for entire plan).

I don't see any ambiguity in the language. AP is awarded 100% as of 12/28/07. The award is an investment in assets expected to appreciate over time. Change in market value happens daily. Hope is it will always be upward not downward. AP is sole owner of 100% including gains & losses. ADRP procedures are the best way to handle this. Ours say the AP gets invested in same asset allocation as participant unless the qdro states investment allocation. Our form letters and model qdro sent to attorney explain this and the related change in market value that can occur.

Bird, obviously some govt geek who thought he was being clever by saving the state lots of money on recordkeeping and reporting to IRS.

If the DRO is qualified they get 100% of value as of 12/28/07. So if market goes up or down, they get 100% of gain or loss. IF there were contributions since 12/29/07 they belong to the participant allong with the associated gains and losses.

Does plan have hardship withdrawal? Is it safe harbor? If so, and you follow the plan, why not. Seems funny logic, you freeze all activity waiting for DL. Why? You start new plan you have all kinds of stuff going on while waiting for DL to arrive.

No, to be deductible on 2007 return they must be funded by 3/15/08 or if you file extension you can go as late at 9/15/08. Key is you can't file 1120 until you make the contribution.

No de minimus amount. You have to file.

If the trust assets were distributed to individual plans as of 8/31/07 then the filing is due 7 months later on March 31. You can get automatic 2.5 month extension to June 15 if you file 5558. If the assets were gone by 8/31 you can't say your year ended 12/31. If you still had assets you can use the date the last assets tranferred out. I file 5558 for my MT filings.

I believe the APA (american payroll association) has something like that. You have to be member to get their resourses or know a member to borrow theirs.

Is this cash vs accrued accounting.

Section 4979 must be filed by last day of 15th month following the close of plan year to which excess contributions relate. So if the excess was from 12/31/2006 PY you have until 3/31/08. If you pay late you accrue interest from due date until it is paid. You can file an extension for up to 6 months and hope for approval and estimated tax due with 5558.

Safe harbor plans avoid testing by following many other requirements. They only get pass on ADP and maybe ACP - depends on the plan. Not sure I understand your question. Are you asking if plans must pass all coverage and non discrimination tests annually? The answer is yes, with the exception that some safe harbor plans can avoid some of the test, but not all.

By definition you can not be HCE the first year you work for employer, exception is if you transfer between members of a control group. This guy is not an HCE in 2008 unless you paid him over $100,000 in 2007.

From what I have been involved with, you may have problem. Union normally is sponsor specific and if you have sub'd out the work then you have ceased having an obligation to contribute and therefore have complete withdrawal. Now if there was control group relationship then you would be off the hook since the groups obligation didn't change.

Is this a building & construction industry? Rules vary and there are exceptions to the rules for certain groups.

If you bought stock you bought the right to amend the return. You also bought the liability from sins of prior owners.

Unless the document kept up with changes you may have bigger issue. As jim points out, you may have multiple employer arrangement now. But unless the documents reflect this you actually had ineligible employees participating in the plan.

Our PS plan has last day rule. If you were employed on last normal business day (even it was your last day of employment) you get PS. When I was in TPA land we did all the plans that way.

jpod, we had one of these sham qdros and the IRS caught it a year after it happened when the couple filed a joint return and still owed back taxes. fact - there was speedy divorce, distribution of 100% of assets, 3 weeks later they remarried. My advice to CDEsq I had hoped would promt them to get legal counsel. Didn't mean to annoy you by not being clear.

If this a true divorce then I don't see a problem. I have seen a few 100% QDROs and none were questioned. If this is one of those cases where they plan to get divorce, do QDROs and then remarry you have harder time if IRS does question it.

I would suggest the Plan Sponsor pay the fee.

Am skeptical, we send D codes to SSA every year and still get folks calling when they get the "you MAY have" letter from SSA. My cynical voice is telling me SSA only cares about A, B and C codes.

John, Forget the non spouse beneficiary angle. I didn't quite understand the form of benefit. Thanks for explaining.

John, The second scenario - just to be sure I am reading this right - AP gets 50% of benefit. When the EE dies the AP now receives 50% J&S benefit for life? The 50% the AP was getting stops and the benefits continue in different form. Wouldn't this require plan to offer form of benefit not currently offered? Does your plan pay J&S benefits to non spousal beneficiarys?

I agree QDROphile, but if record keeper sends notice and it comes back undeliverable it is wrong to send a check to that address knowing it will come back. We told out record keeper couple years ago to stop sending checks to known bad addresses. In 2005 one plan had almost 500 outstanding checks, about 75% were involuntary cashouts to folks with known bad address. Now we get list of bad addresses and we (the company) work on finding these folks. We then do the involuntary cash out - after we find them.