My wife's employer caps her 401(k) deferrals at 15% of her salary. She defers the 15% max but it isn't enough to reach the $18,000 max for annual deferrals. She is over 50 but is not allowed to make "catch up contributions" because she hasn't reached the $18,000 limit. She wants to put more money into her 401(k) but cannot, due to these restrictions. Are these restrictions allowed by law? It seems unfair to restrict her deferrals in this manner.

What do you all think of using 3% instead of actually calculating the ADP? One very large company wants to use 3%. Is there any regulatory backing for this position?

Can an employee participating in a Cafeteria Plan FSA also establish and use a HSA?

Employer has an EACA plan and auto enrolls participants at 4%. They now want to add auto escalation at 1% up to 10%. Question: Because this is an EACA Plan, is the employer prohibited (regulatory restriction vs document restriction) from including the participants who made an affirmative election in the auto escalation? For example Jane defers 5% of pay. Can she be included in the auto escalation annually? I realize that she can decline the auto escalation during the notice period.

We have a small employer looking to start a safe harbor 401(k) for 2017, but it's now 11/10/17 and the deadline for 2017 has passed. Could they start a safe harbor 401(k) plan on 12/15/2017 and have its first plan year run from 12/15/2017 through 12/14/2018? They'd plan to have a short plan year from 12/15/2018 through 12/31/2018, and go to a calendar plan year for 2019. The company's fiscal year is the calendar year -- does that sink this idea? The company has 3 employees, 2 of whom are owners who will be receiving large bonuses in late December 2017. The owners could defer most of that into the 401(k) plan in late 2017. Then they'd have 11+ months to make 2018 deferrals. They'd do nothing for the 16-day short plan year, but would resume deferrals on a calendar year basis in 2019. The other employee doesn't plan to make any deferrals under the plan. Given what is likely to be a high contribution rate for the 2 HCEs for 2017, a QNEC for the other employee would be pretty expensive and not desirable.

If a plan has Employer Nonelective Contributions for union employees only, does it need to be in the SPD or it okay for this contribution to only be addressed in the Collective Bargaining Agreement? The employer doesn't want the whole employee population to know that the union match is more than theirs.

Specifically, how does one determine if a NQDC is a "restoration" plan. Must the plan type be explicitly stated in the plan documents? What specific language in the plan documents should I be looking for? For background, I manage investments for a number of Walmart Associates, some of whom defer salary and/or bonus in the employer plan. Thanks in advance. Scott