stevena

Does anyone know anything about new state regulations that go into effect Jan 1, 2004 which say that financial institutions (maybe not exclusively, but inclusively) cannot mail anything out with ssn's on them? I need to find out which states adopted this but i dont know where to start looking. thanks Lisa

Hmmm...guess I was wrong. I thought the QKA was equivalent to the QPA I wish I could get another designation from ASPA that would not include DB stuff. Oh well

Does anyone know if the ASPA QKA designation is considered a "lesser" designation than the QPA? I got the QKA instead of the QPA becasue I dont work with DB plans at all. However, coworkers consider it a lesser designation. I thought they were the same, only focused in different directions....

We will just be using it to review administrators and to try to improve the administration department. I have it mostly drafted, Basically it asks the following: (i stole some ideas from the prior poster) 1. how efficient is your administrator in responding to your needs 2. how effective is your administrator in responding to your problems 3. how do you rate the quality of the work which your administrator produces?(i defined quality) 4. do you have confidence that your plan is being serviced by a knowledgeable administrator 5. how do you rate your administrator's response time to your requests 6. what is your overall impression of the quality of service you are provided then, the open comments section then I asked if we could contact them about their responses. I hope to be able to retain clients better by hopefully getting any problems or issues they are having with administration before it becomes a bigger problem. SO i am thinking we will send this out with a yearly mailing, like their 5500/annual report mailing.?

Wow thanks so much, that really helped! My two questions were, in fact, "are our reports timely and accurate" and "how do you rate our overall services"~! It was a great help how you articulated everything. I think my questionnaire will be more thoughtful now. Thanks again! Lisa

Hello I work for a TPA and I am creating a feedback questionnaire which we will send out with our annual reports. I am wondering if anyone else does this and how your return is on these. Also looking for ideas on what to ask. This is to get feedback on quality of our services, etc. thanks a lot Lisa

Tom, Remember the LONG discussion we had on a previous post regarding the excludables on the ACP test due to last day requirement etc.? (I was taking my exam...?) My boss is just agonizing over this...cannot believe it can be true. Hope to see you at ASPA in October? He says he is just dumbfounded by this-for a variety of reasons...would love a discussion in Washington! Lisa

My take...EE may defer the minimums on the IRA rollover account in the plan because he has recharacterized that account when he rolled it into the plan. This is a "regular" rollover, not a deemed IRA

and, as an aside, how do you live in that state with those huge scary alligators??????

Wow I have to say, I am blown away by that. I have been doing that wrong all these years. I have always counted the employee who does not get a match due to a last day requirement who works over 500 hours as not benefitting, which i think is ok. But, I also have always put that person in my ACP test and counted that person as a "0" thanks so much for helping me understand that. Lisa

**sigh** I just cannot let this go, for some reason...because I really want to understand it!! Sorry for those who are tiring of my confusion... am i understanding correct, tom... that an employee can actually be includable on the coverage test but excluded from the ACP test? You said "the employee would be includable and not benefitting" from coverage... but then you said "the employee is not included on the ACP test" ????

Well everyone, I did pass! I am so excited. The test was really hard, but I have to say, I didnt have any problems with wording of questions at all on the test... i almost didnt finish the test because i was reading each question so carefully., but anyway, i am psyched so thanks everyone for your help!!!! (even though, truthfully, i still dont get the answer to the question.....)

pmacduff, I have been doing this for eight years, and took the C-1 and passed, but failed the C2DC last summer. So, next Monday, try try again...hopefully next Monday I will have earned my QKA. My boss did tell me to stop trying to find the exception to every question, so maybe that is part of the problem We do everything by hand here, testing, coverage, etc. on spreadsheets, so it is really distressing to fail this test, because i do know what i am doing! Lisa

" If the document has a last day or hours requirements, participants not meeting that last day or hours requirement are not included in the ACP test" what if they do not meet the last day test AND they have more than 500 hours?? Then they are not excluded from coverage, and my understanding is they MUST be on the ACP test I understand the answer to the question, and i know that people who terminate with less than 500 hours are not on the coverage test and are not required to be included on the ACP test. I was trying to tie the question in with the statement from the text that said that if a plan has a LAST DAY requirement, and the participant is not employed on the last day of the plan year, then THEY would not be included: "An employee may be eligible for the ADP test and not the ACP test, eg, did not meet thie last day employed requirement." The statement in the book seems to indicate that regardless of hours worked, if an employee is not there on the last day of the plan year, they are not in the ACP test if the requirement for a match is to be there on the last day. And, the regulations that I read which were posted by another said that the people who are in the ACP test were only those who RECEIVE AN ALLOCATION. However, I wasnt sure what "receive an allocation" meant, I guess that could mean that anyone with more than 500 hours receives an allocation of zero because that is what they are entitled to, and anyone less than 500 hours is just not required to be tested.

Thanks for the reply...I am sure that the people who write the exams try hard and are very nice people. I think I came across wrong but aside from that.... This issue seems rather HUGE to be just a typo or a bad question...The very way that the book says to do an ACP test is what is in question. This is not just one question, this could very well affect a number of questions and the way I run all of my tests. that is why i am concerned. i would not harp on a bad question, believe me and i could simply have been doing it wrong for years...but that is why i am asking.

AndyH, I have one HCE and one Non HCE The NHCE does not make employee deferrals. there is a 1000 hour last day rule for match. the high defers and gets a match the coverage test already passes because the non high is deemed to be benefitting does my ACP test now pass because I can pull the non high out of my test because he did not meet the requirements for receiving a match? So...if my NHCE did not quit, I would fail, but because he quit I pass? Extreme example but shows exactly my confusion.

No, didnt mean anything by that....I meant that when they (whether actuaries or not) write the test, they should have someone who is totally not associated with writing the test review it. You know, if they are writing the test, when they go to review it, they already know what they meant when they made up the questions. Like I imagine everyone sitting around a table discussing the questions, and unfortunately anyone taking them is not privy to the 20 mnutes of discussion about the questions... thats all i meant...not anything about actuaries. sorry if i offended.... actuary brains/math brains are way above what my brain can handle...

AndyH, I think my question is, do I exclude or include people on my ACP who do not get a match due to a last day requirement. If the answer is no, then I ask, how can my testing group be a viable group, since the testing group for ADP/ACP has to be a group which passes coverage FIRST. If the answer is you can exclude them from the ACP, then how to do you fix the coverage problem? Would you start bringing people into the ACP test like you would maybe correct a coverage problem? Do I start looking under how to correct coverage to see who I need to include in my ACP??? it shouldnt be an issue because you should always be starting with a group that passes coverage already! I wish the people who wrote the ASPA exams would have a committee of people actually review them. And not actuaries, I mean real people, actual English speaking people. Tons of questions that I read I can tell are written by actuaries because they know what they mean, but the question is so ambiguous, sometimes I am not even sure what question they are asking...

OK everyone, help me out. I am of the understanding that you can NOT even begin to do ADP/ACP testing with a group that will not pass coverage. So, if I have so many non highs not getting a contribution due to say, a last day test, that I woud fail coverage, how can I then decide to exclude them from my ACP? The weird thing is, I did go back and read the regs (thanks to whoever cited them) and they do say to EXCLUDE anyone who does not actually receive an allocation of match in the ACP due to not satisfying the requirements for a match. However, when I went to the 2003 401(k) Answer Book, the Q&A which addresses this issue cites exactly the regs, word for word, except it actually deletes the whole section regarding excluding employees who dont receive an allocation due to allocation requirements. it purposely cites the regs word for word but deletes the section about the issue I am questioning???

I know there is a seperate board for the C-2DC but no one ever uses it... Can you help with a couple of questions? 1. Can you really exclude participants from your ACP test if they are not eligible for a Match due to a last day requirement? Per the textbook, "An employee may be eligible for the ADP test and not the ACP test, e.g., did not meet the last day employed requirement to receive a matching contribution." I have never seen this before and have always included participants in my ACP in this situation. And the question on the Practice Test: "Which of the following describes participants that can be excluded from the ACP test? a. A participant who cannot contribute due to a hardship distribution taken in the last six months b. A participant who elects not to defer c. A participant who is not included in the minimum coverage tests for the 401(m) component of the plan. the answer is © but I am not sure why?? Also, another question asks, "All of the following statements regarding catch-up contributions are true, except: a. Participant deferrals may be recharacterized as catch up contributions after the plan year ends b. A plan will not fail 401(a) (4) because of catch ups c.Participants must be at least 50 before the end of the plan year to be eligible to make catch ups d. Catch ups will not cause failure of the ADP test The answer is (a). I cant figure out why this is the answer as I dont see how catch ups are characterized until the end of the year when testing is done, so why would this be a false statement?? I really appreciate all you smart guys helping me out.... Lisa

I have a problem with an employee who is trying to roll some of her IRA accounts into her Profit Sharing Plan which I administer. The Profit Sharing Plan is at Nationwide. The trustee is the Employer. The IRA is at Merrill Lynch. The employee wants to roll the Merrill Lynch money into Nationwide. Here is what Merrill Lynch wants: A letter from the employee saying she wants it transferred, specifying how check is to be payable, etc.--but accompanied by an acceptance letter from NATIONWIDE (huh?). I dont get why if we are transferring money from Merrill to a trustee, why the acceptance letter would not come from the Trustee??? why does the IRA fund group 1) care where the money is going, or 2) need a letter from the custodian (not the Trustee...) of where the money is going??? If we are doing a custodian to trustee transfer, why wouldnt it be that a letter of acceptance from the trustee is required?? Since Nationwide is not trustee, what right would they have to write an acceptance letter? Since it is the trustee who decides to accept the rollover or not. I am confused..... has anyone done any of these yet?

If anyone has the patience to reply to this post... Client, as I said, currently uses Kemper document. Could we possibly rely on the current Kemper document's use (even though Kemper will not allow him to use the restated document because his funds are not at Kemper) to give the client until 12/31/02 to use the GUST approved Smith Barney document? In other words, not have him sign a letter of intent to adopt (which Smith Barney does not have) OR fill out a current Smith Barney adoption agreement (which is unapproved for GUST as of yet). Does the clients current use of the Kemper prototype mean that he needs to do no further action until 12/31/02...even though Kemper has said he cannot use the document after 1/1/02? Kemper did file with the IRS by 12/31/00.

Thank you so much for your help!

Actually, I had trouble with the letter of intent with two document sponsors. I was on the phone for 3 1/2 hours yesterday. I still have both of them telling me that they have no such thing. One of them told me to write it and they would sign it. (WHO would sign it, I said??) In addition, both are requiring that to adopt the document when it is restated requires adopting the current document...so I have to fill out the current adoption agreement, and then the GUST-restated adoption agreement. I am not confident that this is actually required...it seems nonsensical. But I cannot find anyone who knows anything at the fund groups. Not sure where filling out the current adoption agreement will get me, as I will still not have a letter of intent. One of the fund groups told me that they used to have a document/legal help desk, but that it was closed last year. I was amazed yesterday as I made literally twenty calls and was transferred from Boston, to New York, then back to Boston- to the same person I originally talked to. The whole thing is so frustrating. Thanks for the response though.

PSP Client uses Kemper document. Kemper is not allowing them to adopt GUST restated document because the funds for the plan are not held at Kemper. So, client wants to use Smith Barney Document as funds are held there. Smith Barney has not been issued a DOL opinion letter yet. So, client needs to have a letter of intent to adopt Smith Barney document when the opinion letter IS issued. Who drafts this letter of intent to adopt? (Plan is self trusteed). I understand it has to be signed by the employer as well as the document sponsor. Document sponsor says they have no idea what the intent letter is. Plan year end is 12/31. thanks a lot