Bob the Swimmer

But an employee stock option is only a right to exercise the option and does not represent ownership until exercised. I'd love to see the cite on that. Thanks. That's like saying I'll give you a right to buy my business 50% and by doing that, you become a 50% owner, without ever paying the exercise price !

I agree with Luke, but if I'm offered a 5% stock option, I'm not an owner yet, until and only until I exercise that option fully. That is the law as I understand it.

Agree with Luke that fully insured plans nondiscrimination requirements regs have not been issued yet by the Service but are on the books for self-insured plans.

Not offhand, but you could inquire of any of the people listed at the bottom of a Benefits Link newsletter.

Wonder, does the plan define retirement and termination ?

What does the corporate resolution say that grants the options ?

Unrealized losses in a portfolio of assets still count as losses from year to year on the 5500 even though nothing has been sold.

I agree with Mr. Rigby and CardsCrazy. As an example, we have combined ESOPs and 401(k)s for 20 + years---the so-called KSOPs--- and have never had a problem. I don't see any problem if this is properly recorded, administered, and managed in the administrative systems.

YES---BG5150--My understanding is that you can always open up accounts somewhere else if these annuities if you have difficulty getting annuity holders' approval to transfer them.

Many providers of annuities (including TIAA) have these maddening older annuities with 403(b) plans that are 100 pages long and require each participant to sign off and then they have a ten-year withdrawal process which in this day and age is absolutely confiscatory IMHO---beware the sign-off procedure. We even had one vendor who actually called participants at their homes to encourage them NOT to sign the withdrawal forms !

Belgarath---Agree with Luke --that's the way we've always done it since the early 90s. The definition of plan is drafted to include all applicable benefits, including the benefit "vehicle" of the 125.

There are IRS penalties for being severely overfunded--I had to terminate my DB plan and wind down the funding, and then rolled it over to an IRA as, even with our conservative assumptions, it became overfunded after 15 years.

I'm still a proud Browns fan--I had my picture taken at 12 years old with Frank Ryan who quarterbacked the NFL-winning Browns in the last NFL title before the Super Bowl and I am from Akron, the home of LeBron

DAVE--- Thanks--your insight is valuable--- Really dumb q--I'm having trouble finding the search engine---Does not have anything to do with the fact that I grew up as a Cleveland Indians fan and Browns fan and lived about 10 minutes from the Cavs stadium ? Thanks-- BOB

Respectfully, I’m not sure why you’re going back that far to begin with. Typically, we might go back ten years but no more, I’ve had discussions with both regulators about this at a high level.

In 2018 and 2019, you can give up to $15,000 to someone in a year and generally not have to deal with the IRS about it. If you give more than $15,000 in cash or assets (for example, stocks, land, a new car) in a year to any one person, you need to file a gift tax return. One parent could gift-split with another parent and give $30k in one year without having to file a gift tax return.

I'll speak up for both sides and say if it is simply a management letter comment that does not rise to the level of a 5500 disclosure, then that's okay--if they are making a bigger mountain out of a molehill, that's another thing entirely---their new dictates from the audit guidelines require them to be even more detail-oriented---that said what you describe should definitely be more of a molehill than a mountain and should be treated as such as any conscientious auditor--I became a CPA by taking night classes and I've supervised the tax side of several thousand plan audits for nearly 2 decades for a Big 4 and while the world is changing, that's the way it still should be.

Agree with what has been said---best way to review overall is to have an actuary show you what the contributions could be under various scenarios as ours does for clients. This should be right up his/her alley.

The International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans has a book on self-insured plans in its library to my recollection---I helped to edit a chapter in one of the editions many years ago. Self-insured plans are subject to a crazy-quilt pattern of state laws depending on how many states you are in which has gotten even crazier with some of the new state, city and county legislation out there on various subjects.

I worked as a senior executive for several bank trust Departments early in my career and there was no discounting of fees during my tenure--but often the business would be moved to us because of the lending relationship---to the comment about the CPA firm handling RFPs, my practice and that of Committees that I've served on has been to make sure that the firm that is selected can be and has been documented clearly as the best choice (from a number of different perspectives--fees, service history, references, personnel, reputation, etc.) from what we knew at that point in time

Years ago we set up a participant retirement investment committee with at least two clients whose participants had varied views on investments that they wanted to express and to weigh in periodically on what they thought was something that should be considered--this was always balanced with a more healthy representation on the committee of institutional knowledge and fiduciary understanding like the CFO and/or HR director --sometimes a committee of 5, just because employees liked to feel that they had a voice and it was at least listened to. Have not suggested that in a long time. There is a lot of content on ESG investment in the investment trade press generally , and for example the Calvert Funds represent social representation in a big way.

AGREED, or even longer with TIAA old annuities (10 years)

I don't see the ER picking the charity very much as the EE picking the charity--a prevalent trend in Boards for public companies is to have the Board pick up a fixed donation to a favorite charity of the Board member's choice

CHETU--- This is very good--see attached--I might have added Voluntary Benefits which has enjoyed a surge in the past 3 years. Best Regards----BOB EE Benefits Survey---3-4-19--Exhibit 10.docx

Our firm does executive compensation market pricings and we have for 43 years--- Agree with Rather be Golfing---an important criteria is revenue for the firm, asset size, and number of employees---we don't use one survey but use multiple surveys (usually more than 6)