FT William Software?

[EPCRSGuru]

We have had "issues" with our existing 5500 preparation software, hampered by Tech Support at the vendor which was unavailable on the evening of October 15, so we are in the market for a new software package. We have multiple plans (4 retirement, 5 H&W) and the 5500s for the retirement plans have complex assets and schedules. Our 8955-SSA has been a particular problem because there are many hundreds of terminated vested participants in each plan and our current software could not upload the participant data, requiring it to be manually entered.

If anyone has any thoughts on their experience with FT William, I'd love to hear them!

[Bird]

They are great - fantastic - for our purposes (we are a TPA for smaller plans). Very responsive. I can't speak to the complicated schedules issue but everything we do through them is handled well.

[A Shot in the Dark]

I concur with Bird's assessment of FT William. We have used their 5500 software for years and I would recommend them highly.

[chc93]

We also use FTWilliam for 5500's, and agree with the comments above. Software is excellent, and support is even better. 8955-SSA and Schedule D information uploads into their software very easily using their templates. No problems at all.

[mbvs]

ASC also offers a great web-based 5500 package. Please send me a private message if you would like to learn more.

[Tom Poje]

agree with comments on FT William. we switched in 2009 when electronic filing was first required and had no problems back then. (the software was ready to go mid-Feb and the one we had been using wouldn't be ready until a month or 2 later. if you aren't aware of it, all you have to do is type in the plan EIN number and the 5500 is all the prior year info is there. that was the trigger to getting us to switch.

was able to write a report to extract the SSA info from Relius and easily import into the 5500 - what a lifesaver that has been.

(I haven't looked at other software since then, so I can't speak for other programs. I'm sure there are other programs out there. I sat in on a session on electronic filing after the 5500 deadline back then, and the speaker talked about all the problems/grumblings people had.

he asked for a show of hands of people who were happy with the new filing method and I was one of the few who raised my hands. he caught me afterwards and seemed surprised when I said I had no problems - I'm assuming it was all which software was up to speed that first year. )

[GMK]

What happened to the "s" at the end of the name? Is there only one now?

[Bird]

There never was an "s"; always Ft. William, although it's often been misspelled here. It has something to do with a place in Scotland; founder's affinity or affiliation to same, I think.

[GMK]

Thanks, Bird. I saw the "s" here so often, I lost track of which is correct.