Money Purchase Pension Program Terminations

[Guest jjohnson]

HELP!

1. I am with an International Organization and we have a Money Purchase Pension Plan with an appointed "TRUSTEE" and with the Vanguard Group as well as a CPA firm that facilitates the necessary paper work required for terminations (Retirement or resignations).

2. One of our employees retired on 31 October 2000 and requested to close his Money Purchase Pension Plan.

3. Approximately 10 December 2000 he received the options available to him from an Actuarial Service firm hired by the CPA firm.

4. The employee completed the forms and had a Notary verified both his signature and his wife's and FedEx the form back to our organization.

5. The CPA was provided the notarized selection form which requested a "lump-sum" payment.

6. He was not prvided the money from the Vanguard Funds until 22 March 2001.

7. QUESTION: Does the employee have a case against the International Organization or the CPA firm or BOTH?

8. If so what Federal Law or Statute or Governmental Agency is the "watch dog" for this type of problem.

9. If the answer is too long, I can be reached at (212) 455-0217 or e-mail: jjohnson@kedo.org.

Thanks!

Jim Johnson

[Guest TracyAndrews]

You need to refer to your Plan Document which will state very clearly how often the Plan is valued, be it daily, annually, quarterly, etc. The terminated participant would be paid as of the last valuation date. (I assume that is your question, he requested a distribution in October, and the market dropped horribly through March) If the plan is a daily valuation and the document states this, the account is worth what it is worth as of the day of distribution. However, you need to check this carefully. Also the document should prescribe a certain time frame for distributions, actually October to March is not all that bad, I've heard of much worse.