Money Purchase Plan - restrictions on investments?

[TaxLawyer1978]

Are there any restrictions on what types of investments can a money purchase plan invest in?  Can you loan money out of the plan if it's for investment purposes and not for extraordinary circumstances? 

Thanks

 

[Larry Starr]

Part 1: Yes.

Part 2: Maybe.

This is a complicated question not well handled here.  The specifics of the loan will be critical to knowing if it is possible or if it is a prohibited transaction.  It is easier to talk about a specific intended investment and why or why not that may be problematic. Then, there are investments that are allowed but still should  not be done for many administrative and complexity reasons.

We insist that a client call us ANYTIME they are even THINKING of doing some "different" than what we have already discussed they will be doing.  And since we teach them that we have to be involved in setting up ANY investment account (or otherwise  we can almost guarantee it will be done wrong), we (almost always) can nip these bad decisions in the bud.