Money purchase plan, termination and spousal consent

[Guest kmf]

I'm advising a terminating money purchase plan. There are missing participants and all of the methods for finding them (using the DOL's FAB 2004-02 list) have been used. The next step would seem to be to set up IRAs for them and do rollovers.

But how do we deal with the spousal consent requirement? I see that the FAB has a footnote that makes the assumption that the DC plan does not provide an annuity option which, of course, the money purchase plan does.

Does anyone know of DOL or other guidance on how to deal with this situation? We obviously need to get the money out of the plan in order to terminate it, but I'm not seeing how we have a valid distribution without the spousal consent.

[K2retire]

I believe in this situation your distribution is supposed to be in the form of a J&S annuity purchased for them.

[david rigby]

When searching, don't forget to check for deceased.

This link is one mechanism for doing so: http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com/

[Guest kmf]

I believe in this situation your distribution is supposed to be in the form of a J&S annuity purchased for them.

Thanks very much. Everyone involved had been planning on IRAs but the annuity requirement seems obvious, now that it's pointed out.

[Guest kmf]

When searching, don't forget to check for deceased.

This link is one mechanism for doing so: http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com/

Good suggestion. Thanks.

[Guest Sieve]

Spousal consent is not required if you cannot find the spouse. (IRC Section 417(a)(2)(B) & Treas. Reg. Section 1.401(a)-20, Q&A-27.) So, if you can't locate the participant, presumably you can't locate the spouse, so no spousal consent ought to be necessary.

Edited for typo only.

[GMK]

if you can't locate the participant, presumably you can't locate the spouse

Is this a generally accepted assumption, or is it preferable to go through the search options for the spouse, too?

[Guest Sieve]

Until the OP, I'd never really thought about it. If you know the spouse's name, then I suspect you ought to search for the spouse.

Which begs the question: ought you also generally search for the spouse when you are trying to locate the participant? Here's what FAB 2004-02 says about locating missing participants of terminated DC plans: " . . . plan fiduciaries must attempt to identify and contact any individual that the missing participant has designated as a beneficiary (e.g., spouse, children, etc.) for updated information concerning the location of the missing participant."