Documenting Hardship for Next 12 Months of Education Expenses

[namealreadyinuse]

Plan and Regs permit education expense for next 12 months. Next semester has not been billed yet. Anyone have a problem with estimates used as justification? Maybe it is not IMMEDIATE and heavy financial need if not billed yet, but plan uses safeharbor and this meets those requirements.

[Nate X]

A plan administrator has the responsibility to exercise due diligence in obtaining assurance that the money received from a hardship distribution will be used directly to pay for post-secondary education expenses during the next 12 months. The easiest way to accomplish this is by obtaining a written representation from the employee. However, be careful using estimates. The amount should not exceed the amount actually needed. So for example, if you assume that tuition cost will raise 5% next semester but the school has not made such announcement, the amount distributed could exceed the financial need.