Voluntary Fiduciary Compliance Program

[bevfair]

Has anyone had a client receive a letter from EBSA/DOL with regard to late deposits being reported on the Form 5500, with the "recommendation" they file under VFCP? And if so, did you file under VFCP?

[movedon]

Yes. No.

[bevfair]

Any suggestions on how to deal with a client who thinks they want to submit?? Corrections were made using on-line calculator but the 'practice' of being late has not yet been corrected. Thoughts?

[movedon]

My experience with clients with the flawed practice of chronically submitting deferrals late is that they never change. The most succesful but admittedly unscientific method of dealing with the problem in my experience has been doing the annual corrective contribution and excise tax filing and skipping the DOL filing. Never had any problem with that method, but YMMV.

I did have one client that insisted on doing the DOL filing annually, complete with a statement that they had changed their ways to eliminate the problem in the future. They did this filing annually for about five years until the DOL finally responded and told them to quit filing because they obviously weren't really fixing the problem.

If I had a client that chose to file with the DOL (after I explained all the options), I'd be fine with that, but I would suggest they seriously consider fixing the problem so as not to have to file again in a subsequent year.