rr_sphr

My spouse personally had this same issue with taking money from JHancock (but they or the employer also seemed to somehow lose the first distribution form we sent and/or the lost the first check - it never made it to Fidelity or to our home or to the HR department at the former employer.) They had to stop the first distribution/check and re-issue and that one they sent directly to the employer who then overnighted the check to us and we deposited it to a local Fidelity branch. Sounds a bit like a pattern with JH! Three weeks does sound like a long period of time when I've seen distributions processed in less than 48 hours from other recordkeepers on daily accounts (I am old enough to remember when distributions were processed quarterly or annually!) 3 weeks even with mail time seems a bit much.

I'm going to point you to a document : https://ifap.ed.gov/fsahandbook/attachments/1213FSAHbkVol6Ch2.pdf about benefits and Federal work study wages (I quickly used the "find" option to look for the word "benefits") rather than going from the plan document side. It is the closest I could find that brings up benefits and it does state that no part of the federal wages can be used for retirement benefits. -- i remember this from reviewing it years ago...

thanks! That's pretty much where we are. But I did find out from our FSA TPA that they had been sending all notifications/requests to her work email (from which she terminated about a year ago!) I am not sure why it took them a whole year to send us the information but they did show me where on their system I could look for future issues to catch it earlier (not sure exactly what we are paying them for -- this is the 2nd "large" incident with them and I hope to change at plan year end to a different vendor) They were totally unwilling to give any (non-legal) advice....

First time to deal with this, so any help would be great. I've found and read IRS Memo 201413006 that speaks to this, but it doesn't speak to the case where the employee has terminated employment in the prior year. Debit card was charged in plan year 2017 for $159.26. Participant terminated employment 7/14/17 and received her 2017 W-2 at the beginning of 2018. Third party FSA admin just notified us at the end of the claim period and has stated that they have sent notices and contacted the individual 3 times and suspended the debit card as required by the Memo above. But it looks like there were no other claims to offset and there are no future wages in 2018 to offset. So the $159.26 would become income in 2018, right? And the employer would just have to eat the both sides (employee and employer) of the (albeit small) FICA/FUTA amounts? and the former employee would receive a W-2 from the employer for 2018? Any one have to deal with this in the past that can tell me whether i am going down the correct path or not? Thanks!

what paperwork/documentation is he providing if not a DRO? Is there a purchase contract or some written agreement?

To me, a PO is just how and when they are expecting to pay for services, but doesn't define those services. I love Larry's setup, but can understand why a SAgmt is needed to clarify the roles of both sides. To me, these are two different things for two different reasons.

I work as the solitary HR person for a 100 employee nonprofit. Before that i worked for a 100 person property management company also solitary HR. In both instances I have been a plan administrator without anyone other than the investment advisor or TPA to ask questions of beyond this Board (and other HR forums). However, I also worked 7 1/2 years for one of the top three Global HR consulting firms in 401k recordkeeping back in the 1990s. And part of it will depend on how good a TPA or investment advisor is and we don't always have the ability to make a change!

I have a sneaky suspicion it was derived from the standard 40 hours * 52 weeks = 2080 hours (minus 80 vacation) to get to 2000 and then divided by two to get to some equivalent of 6 months service. But as to who derived it first or when, I can't specifically state....I am only a "semi-old timer" as I was around in the 1990's and 1000 hours was around then and used quite often.

totally agree !! Luckily we are moving forward and i got buy-in on at least one issue so far. It's just tough to come in new and see it so very wrong and know that i have to work steadily but quickly to get them in line with the Plan Document (or it in line with them)!

Thank you! Saved me some searching time! I knew there would be something basic out there!

I know...i know...I should be able to convince TPTB that there are a lot of bad consequences for failing to follow the plan document, but I am in need of something pretty basic on this topic for the top decision maker of my firm. She tends to know how she wants things done regardless of what the plan document says. And I have not been in this position long and am fighting a bit on "how it's been done" vs what the plan doc says. (I have a very strong 401k background, but it is from 1991-2000 or so..so my documents/knowledge can be out of date a bit) I am in the process of setting up a meeting between our TPA, the exec, our financial advisor etc to go over the terms of the plan document as they exist versus what we want them to be. Our TPA isn't the strongest and seems to be okay with having knowledge that we are not following the plan document (tends to be that we can ask forgiveness later). Once they tell us something, there seems to be no followup (or an assumption that we cleaned up the mess on our side -- now granted much of it is due to prior HR employees and their lack of 401k knowledge or even opening the Plan Document/Adoption Agreement). Would appreciate any help ......

what is the vesting schedule and does 2013-2014 show that they worked full time hours? Is their age such that during the time period missing that they would have been an adult vs student/intern? I agree in trying to get W-2 copies from the IRS, but depending on the vesting schedule, I'd err on the side of 10 yrs service. eta: unfortunately from a payroll perspective, many are told they only need to keep payroll records 2-3 years for wage or discrimination claims and they forget about retirement plan needs....