waid10

John - thanks. This was very helpful.

A hospital authority is a political subdivision and has formed a 501©(3) to employ physicians. Can the hospital authority establish a governmental plan and make that plan available to both employees of the parent (hospital authority) as well as employees of the sub?

The contributions have been made since January 2006. I am unsure how the funds were invested. Contributions were made on behalf of employees of the exempt parent as well as employees of the taxable sub.

As part of a controlled group, a large tax-exempt parent sponsors both 401(k) and 403(b) plans. The parent has exempt as well as taxable subsidiaries. Employees of one of the taxable subs have been participating in the parents' 403(b). I still don't have data to indicate how "significant" the error is (i.e., number of employees from the sub compared to the number of total participants, etc.), but what will be the appropriate correction method and procedure? Thanks.

Does anyone know of a list or article with all of the required amendments for a governmental 457(b) plan over the last few years? I have been handed a governmental 457(b) plan that hasn't been touched since 2002. I need to update the plan for all legislative changes since 2002. Thanks.

Hi. We are adding a few procedures as covered under our health plan. Our plan document does not state specifically what health procedures are and are not covered under the Plan. However, the SPD does go into that. Do I need to send out and SMM? When does it have to be sent?

To qualify for the employer match in our 403(b) plan, a participant must work 1000 hours. Compensation is defined, for purposes of the match, as W-2 earnings. We have an employee that is terminating soon and has 1000 hours. He will be paid severance after his termination. My question is this: since his severance payments will be part of his W-2 earnings, is there any way that those payments should not be taken into account when calculating his match? There is no "last day of employment" requirement. Thanks.

Hi. Does anyone know where I can find a list of all the mandatory amendments to DC plans going back as far as 1996? I have a new client that didn't amend their profit sharing plan since 1996 and now we are getting ready to go through VCP. We have restated the plan (so the document is compliant), but we need to state all of the amendments that should have been made since 1996 to present. Anyone know where I can find a list by year? Thanks.

My company, a large health care organization will be receiving proposals/presentations from two consulting companies to be our executive comp consultants. Does anyone know of good questions/issues to ask during these presentations to better evaluate them? Any good sources on issues/questions? Thanks.

My employer (a hospital) is acquiring another company (a physician practice). We want to bring the employees of the physician practice into our 403(b) Plan. We also want to give them credit for vesting service for their time working at the physician practice, prior to our acquisition. Is there any problem with doing that? Anything that we need to be careful of? Thanks.

My employer (a hospital) is acquiring another company (a physician practice). We want to bring the employees of the physician practice into our 403(b) Plan. We also want to give them credit for vesting service for their time working at the physician practice, prior to our acquisition. Is there any problem with doing that? Anything that we need to be careful of? Thanks.

My employer is adopting a Medicare Advantage Plan (sometimes known as a Medicare Part C plan) for its Medicare-eligible retirees. Apparently, this type of plan was made available when Medicare decided to allow claims to be processed by private insurance companies. My question is what are the filing requirements for a plan like this? Does the plan have to be filed with the DOL? In general, when does a plan have to be filed with the DOL? Thanks.

By the way, it is a traditional DB pension plan...not a cash balance plan. I am not sure if that would change the answer. Thanks for any help.

My company has a DB Plan and is thinking about terminating it. Is it permissible for employees to rollover their accrued DB benefit into a 401(k) Plan? Or must the accrued benefit be used to buy annuities on behalf of the participants? If it can be rolled over into a DC plan, please point me in the direction of the ERISA or Treasury Regs that permit it. Thanks.

Hi - I have a couple of questions related to a 457(f) Plan. Here is the situation: The organization is a hospital and wishes to benefit two groups of physicians. One group is comprised of non-employed independent contractor physicians. The other group of physicians is made up of hospital-employed physicians. 1. Is there any reason that a 457(f) plan cannot cover both non-employee independent contractors as well as employees? 2. Am I correct that all deferred amounts for key employees must be reported on the organizations Form 990? And this applies for amounts deferred whether or not vested? So that means, every year the hospital would have to report amounts credited to the key employees' accounts whether or not vested, and whether or not distributed? What if there are no key employees that benefit under the plan? The two groups of physicians in this case are not part of management and don't seem to fit the definition of "key employee". Does that mean that none of their deferred amounts need to be reported? Thanks.

Hi, I am just a regular person looking for information. I am 41 years old. I resigned from my employer a few years ago. I left behind a balance of $27,000 in my 401(k) Plan. I didn't do anything to roll it over or anything. I am now unemployed and need access to the money. Is there any way that I can get the money? If so, what types of penalties or fees will I pay? Thanks.

So it is legally permissible to offer the side-fund of employer dollars to off-set out-of-pocket amounts without the medical plan? I guess I thought that was all an HRA was...kind of like a flexible spending account.

Is an HRA considered a health insurance plan? I ask this because could termination of my employer's fully-insured plan in favor of an HRA trigger COBRA since employees would be losing health coverage (if the HRA is not considered a health plan)? I don't know the real motivation for this. It seems to me that it is cost. I think he is frustrated with the rising cost of insurance and the decrease in benefits under the insured plan. I think he doesn't really understand that what he has proposed isn't really a self-insured plan and that a true self-insured plan would be prohibitively expense for the size of my employer.

I should have indicated before, that this is a 100 employee company (almost all hourly paid workers) and about 7 employees that would be participants in this health plan arrangement. My boss does not want to go with a formal HRA because you need to offer catastrophic coverage over and above the reimbursement arrangement. He believes he can merely put money in a pot for whatever types of health claims are needed, get a corporate tax deduction when the funds are used by the participant, and not be regulated under state insurance laws. He is not concerned with adjudicating claims or privacy issues since the office manager according to him will "basically be writing a check" to cover health care related expenses but won't be reviewing the source of those expenses. He feels that with this arrangement, he provides more dollars of health benefit to employees while also keeping premium expense to the company low. Thoughts?

Don - Thanks for responding. Why are we too small to do self-funding? What is a general rule for minimum size to have a self-funded plan? What is a minimum benefits plan? I don't think he will consider combining with other businesses.

My boss wants to switch our company from a fully insured plan to a self-insured plan. We are small (7 employees). Basically, he wants to take the money the company is spending on premiums each year and dump it into an account for each employee. Each employee's "pot" of health dollars can be used for claims each year until it is used up. Thereafter, the employee must fund his own health care costs. In addition, older employees have more put into their "pot" than younger employees. If an employee doesn't use his entire amount, he can roll it over to the next year. I have several questions: 1. In general, I know that self-funded plans are not subject to the same amount of regulation as fully-insured plans, but my boss' design seems really strange. Can this kind of plan design even be done? 2. He says he wants to self-administer claims. Would a third-party administrator be feasible for a company as small as ours? If we self-administer, what kind of HIPAA privacy implications are there? 3. Does anyone know of a good TPA in Virginia for a company of our size? I appreciate any and all insight you can provide. Thanks.

My employer has a nonqualified deferred comp plan for executives that utilizes the 1983 Group Annuity Mortality Table (83 GAM). My question is the following: Does ERISA or some other regulation require that the Plan be amended to use the 1994 Group Annuity Reserving Table (94 GAR)? Or is it up to the employer if it wants to change from using the 83 GAM to the 94 GAR?

My employer has a nonqualified deferred comp plan for executives that utilizes the 1983 Group Annuity Mortality Table (83 GAM). My question is the following: Does ERISA or some other regulation require that the Plan be amended to use the 1994 Group Annuity Reserving Table (94 GAR)? Or is it up to the employer if it wants to change from using the 83 GAM to the 94 GAR?

Employer contributes an amount equal to 18% of employee's salary toward the organization's (fully-insured) health plan premiums. If the 18% is more than enough to cover the premiums, then the excess is contributed to the employee's 403(b) plan account. If the 18% is not enough to cover the health plan premiums, the employee must pay for the difference. Is this arrangement legal? Since the 18% is based upon individual employee salary, higher paid employees are going to get a higher contribution. Presumably, since it is a fully-insured health plan, the health plan contribution piece is fine. But does the arrangement violate 403(b)(12) on the retirement plan side?

Employer contributes an amount equal to 18% of employee's salary toward the organization's health plan premiums. If the 18% is more than enough to cover the premiums, then the excess is contributed to the employee's 403(b) plan account. If the 18% is not enough to cover the health plan premiums, the employee must pay for the difference. Is this arrangement legal? Since the 18% is based upon individual employee salary, higher paid employees are going to get a higher contribution. I know that 403(b) plans are not subject to discrimination testing, but what about health plans (particularly regarding employer contribution for premiums)? I think this is a fully-insured health plan. Thanks.