khn

Regarding bonuses, our client's plan document states 'participants are not permitted to make a separate deferral election, and the Participant's deferral amount elected on the salary deferral agreement will also apply to any bonus received by the participant for any plan year'. Given that, can a participant go in and zero out their deferral just for one pay period and then change it back after they get their bonus? I'm thinking technically it's not a separate deferral election for their bonus; they are just lowering their deferral for a pay period.

Is there a problem if an employer forwards only to participants who are invested 100% in a stable value fund educational material on diversification? I know there is sometimes a fine line between education and advice but i'm thinking this falls under targeted education. One of our clients wants to contact those participants and let them know that that the company wanted to forward this specific info to them to make them aware that there were other options to help them diversify. Is this ok?

Thank you; I thought so but couldn't find much too much out there on this.

It was my understanding that after the initial disclosures were made in 2012, there is only a requirement to provide 408(b)(2) information on an ongoing basis if there are changes to the initial information. However, a colleague of mine believes the notice is required to be sent to plan sponsors annually, even if there are no changes to the fees or services provided. We are a Registered Investment Advisor and our current Service Agreement complies with the regulations without any changes. If anyone can shed some light i'd appreciate it.

Thanks so much!

We have a new client that has filed a 5500 every year, but has never prepared or distributed a SAR in the past. I'm trying to research what the penalties are for this, if any, and how to rectify the situation, but haven't been able to find anything. We'll of course have them start to do it this year, but is there anything they can/should do for the past SARs?