Schedule A and commission information

[Guest jvajj]

Has anyone heard of an insurance company not providing the commission and agent information for usage on the Schedule A? If so, do you know there reasoning for not providing this information since it is a requirement of the filing?

[WDIK]

Perhaps you haven't gone high enough in the company's hiearchy. I have talked with many "representatives" who do not have any idea what a Form 5500 or Schedule A is.

The following is an excerpt from the Instructions for Schedule A.

Importan Reminder. The insurance company (or similar organization) is reauired to provide the plan administrator with the information needed to complete the return/report, pursuant to ERISA section 103(a)(2). If you do not receive this information in a timely manner, contact the insurance company (or similiar organization). If information is missing on Schedule A (Form 5500) due to a refusal to provide information, note this on the Schedule A.

It would seem that the refusal you speak of is at least common enough that it is addressed in the instructions.

[Belgarath]

Have had it happen once. After a couple of inquiries, rather than fight with the insurance company, we just prepared the forms as per the instructions WDIK notes. My fondest hope was that the DOL would lock up the ins. management, fine them, make their lives generally miserable, etc. - but I never heard what, if anything, happened. The information was provided the next year, however...

[jquazza]

We had a lot of plans in the same situation (in 2001 and 2002), all we did was annotate on the schedule A that the insurance company did not provide the data and we never heard anything back from the DOL (not even one of these computer generated letters.)

[Guest Livia]

The DOL has addressed this in DOL Advisory Opinion 2005-02A (24 Feb 2005).