Advocate for participants in 412i plan - please help

[Guest Dean2010]

Myself, along with two other employees are participants in a 412i plan that is terminating. There have been four outside parties involved with the administration and termination of the plan and have reason to believe that many things have been done wrong. We have been given inconsistent information from each party and have had information withheld from us. How can I find an advocate to review and advise on our behalf as we are in way over our heads trying to understand this complicated plan and termination process.

[SoCalActuary]

If you go to a major law firm who knows what they are doing, expect a legal fee of $10,000 to $40,000 for their work.

Maybe you can find someone to blame it on, and you can sue for negligence.

Or, you could just go to the DOL and ask for a plan audit. Ultimately, the plan sponsor is responsible for getting it right.

[Mike Preston]

You could post questions here, but don't include identifying information.

You could try: http://www.actuary.org/palprogram.asp

Good luck.

BTW, it is not uncommon to have a 412(i) program roll through a series of advisors. This has nothing to do with the quality of the service firms, but everything to do with the relationships between the advisors. For example, if a 412(i) plan sponsor decides it is necessary to change legal advisors, that legal advisor might have an ongoing relationship with a different administrative firm.

And, if you do any research about 412(i) plans, you will easily find that the IRS has audited many of them in the last few years and many clients have therefore changed legal advisors along the way.