Allocation of forfeitures

[Guest moorhan]

Client's forfeiture allocation policy per an adoption agreement as of 12/31/00 reads “…as an employer contribution for the Plan year in which the forfeiture occurs, as if the participant forfeiture were an additional employer contribution for that Plan year.” Client's third party administrator instead reduced fees by the amount of forfeitures per the latest adoption agreement effective 1/1/2001. These were 2000 forfeitures, so it seems that the earlier adoption agreement would apply. My question related to this would be the following:

1. Is there a possibility that someone who was newly eligible without an account balance (i.e. a participant due to eligibility only) could have received an allocation of the forfeitures allocated if they had been allocated per the adoption agreement in effect at 12/31/00?

Also, the administrator forgot to bill the Plan for 1999 fees. They were accrued as a payable from the plan on the 1999 Form 5500; however, they were not paid until 2001. It would seem that participants in the plan during 1999 who left in 2000 did not get an allocation of the fees. Also, 1999 fees are being charged to some new participants who were not even in the plan in 1999.

Any comments on these two issues?