Brian Gallagher

i would say you are indeed due the money, plus earnings(?) since they forfeited the money. just because they madre the mistake of assuming it was a trading eror or residual balance, doesn't mean you should get the short end of things. however, did the plan try to contact you and fail, thus considering you (in the plan's eyes) a lost participant? then they may forfeit the money. since the plan told you this (was it on a recorded line?) it is doubful you were "lost" you could bring action against the plan via the DOL i guess, but you need to consider if it is worth it for ten bucks.

keep in mind, though, that my above post applies to the prototype my company uses...your document may treat lost particiants differently.

here is an item from our prototype that was approved by the IRS: Inability to locate participant or Beneficiary. If the Plan Administrator, after a reasonable effort and time, is unable to locate a Participant or a Beneficiary in order to make a distribution otherwise required by the plan, the distributable amount may be forfeited, as permitted under applicable laws and regulations. In determining what is a reasonable effort and time, the Plan Administrator may follow any applicable guidance provided under statute, regulation, or other IRS or DOL guidance of general applicability.

if the lesees are: not more than 20% of nhce's of the employer and are covered by a money purchase plan of 10% and immed. participation and immed. vesting, or belong to a safe harbor plan ...they can be excluded from coverage testing. Sec 401(n) has more

i would say that it would be perfectly acceptable. nowadays, electronic signatures are more and more accepted as legally binding

I believe the IRS has procedures for dealing with "lost participants" and/or beneficiaries. under certain circumstances, the money in the accounts (even the vested money) can be treated as forfeitures. what thos exact circumstances are, i don't know. the plan administrator has to go through reasonable lengths to find these people, but other than that, i'd contact the irs (or dol?)

Can someone point me to the place in the regs where it says that each trust should have it's own Trust Identification Number (that gets entered on the Schedule P)? Any help is appreciated.

besides the obvious acp issues, would there be any other cons? ray's record keeping system handles after tax very well--gross vs net contribs, proper tax forms, etc.

bump

...plus the leased employees must be covered by a money purchase plan of at least 10% of camp and immediate eligibility.

On the subject of charging: Are you going to charge a one-time fee, or wil lit be ongoing. I believe for a good customer relationship a one-time fee would not be out of the question, but an on-going chare would be. Would you charge a plan if they added a P/S option that had a different vesting than match? I'm geussing not, so why do that w/ two match schedules?

An SPD needs to be furnished every five years only if there have been amendments in that time. If there were no amendments, a copy of the original SPD must be furnished every ten years. q.v. Pension Answer Book (2001) 20:10, DOL Reg 2520.104b-2

i would say you can eliminate it as long as a lump sum distribution is the new normal form of benefit. also, you must notify participants at least 90 days before the removal of the qjsa benefit.

Just a tiny aside... If she is over fifty, she can defer an additional $1000 if and only if the plan allows it. Plus there may be a match on it...

thanks for the answers. all i needed was the gist of it. my appreciation to you all... ...bg

Hi, I'm on the run and embarassed that I don't remember this: Is an 'S' corp a partnership that elects to be taxed as a coproration, or a corporation which elects to be taxed as a partnership?

Maybe I missed something in the posts above (there's a LOT of stuff there). I think the crux of the matter is: How much did this (non?)HCE make in 2000 if he was working for your company? If it was more than 80k, then yes, HCE. If not, then no. (I remember reading that he is not a 5% owner). Current year compensation doesn't figure into HCE determination. I am making one assumption here: the company was in existence in 2000, not the plan. ...bg

we sold the "$5000" of mutual funds and placed it in a loan suspense fund under the trust; therefore any defaulted amount would be pulled from there. thus, the participant would have the $6000 in h'ship available (after $1000 loan repay)

on our r/k system, we actually sell the mutual funds (in the example above, $5000). so if the participant defaulted on the loan, the funds were already segregated out of his account, so the remaining $5000 would be untouched. try using a combination of the example above and this: acct bal $10,000 takes loan $5,000 acct bal: $5,000 repays $1,000 of loan acct bal: $6,000 hardship: $6,000 acct bal: $0 loan repays: $2,000 acct bal: $2000 shouldn't there be an available hardship of $2k? keep in mind, this is all elective deferral money, invested in a money market. i'm ignoring any residual earnings--they don't amount to much.

I have a participant who took a lon in Oct 2000 and immediately started to make repayments. In June 2001 he took a hardship. He continued to make loan repayments ($1200 since June '01). He recently applied for another hardship. My r/k system is telling me that he has no eligible hardship. All money in his account is elective deferral and has always been invested in a Money Market fund. Is there something that says loan repays after a hardship are not available for future hardships? Or is my system flawed? Any thoughts will be appreciated. ...bg

We use Transunion. I'm not sure how much they charge or how to get an "account" with them. They have a website, so I'd start there... www.transunion.com ...bg

generally it is the compensation for the entire year, just just paycheck-by-paycheck amounts. as long as the "catch-up" deferral isn't more than 100% of a particular paycheck, and for the year she doesn't go over the 15% limit i don't see a problem. matching, though may be a different story.

my company generally charges $75 set-up with 60$ annual fee charged at $15 quarterly. the plan has the option to pay either or both fees or have the participants pay either or both. Larger clients ($10mm+) generally have this waived.

SMM requirements, plus the 5-year rule. SPD's must be distributed at least every 5 yrs.

I believe that these employees could be excluded under the leased employee rule, provided that all the rules are followed: they cannot make up more than 20% of the ER's workforce and they must be covered by a money purchase plan of at least 10% though the leasing agency. Also that plan must have immediate participation and 100% immediate vesting. There are certain exclusions to the participation rule. Plus the plan would have to satisfy coverage requirements. IRC 414(n) has a lot of stuff re: leased people.