One of our clients has a 401(k) plan. During 2017, the employer created 2 new controlled group companies. All of the employees then became employees of one of the new companies. We were never informed of this and the 2 new companies were never added to the plan as participating employers. They continued to deposit deferrals for the employees. Do the deferrals have to be refunded? Or can this be corrected under EPCRS? Any other suggestions?

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I am working with a frozen plan that is purchasing an annuity contract. The plan NRA is age 65. A participant who terminated before age 65 is now 67 and will be part of the contract. The plan wants to pay the same monthly life annuity that the participant would have received at age 65. Plan does not allow retroactive annuity starting dates (RASD). The plan document does have wording related to suspension of benefits notices, but no one can tell if the notices were mailed out. Plan document states that the deferred retirement benefit cannot be less than the benefit at NRD. Q1. Do suspension of benefits notices apply to terminated vested employees? I thought they were only for actively working employees. Q2. Without an RASD option to give the participant missed payments, plus interest, I think that the payment needs an actuarial increase. Otherwise, the annuity would be "less than the benefit at NRD" because it is being paid 2 years later. Does the annuity need an actuarial increase?

Does anyone know of how the "would result in an adverse business impact that is greater than de minimis" exception should be interpreted by plan sponsors who want to hold off the mortality table change for this year? I represent a company that has $3 billion in revenue each year and postponement of mortality table change would only yield a savings of around $10 million. I'm thinking this isn't sufficient to meet the requirement of the Notice. What say you?

Company X acquires 100% of the equity of Company Y. Company Y was a wholly owned subsidiary of Company Z. My understanding is that, because this is a stock deal, Company Y's employees have not experienced a severance from employment, and all service with Company Y (including pre-acquisition service) must be taken into account for eligibility and vesting purposes under Company X's plan. (Unless the GCM 39824 exception is satisfied. Let's assume it's not.) My question: What about pre-affiliation service with other employers in the acquired company's controlled group? If a Company Y employee also previously worked for Company Z, is that service required to be counted under Company X's plan after the merger? This seems like a stretch, but I could make the argument that it should be counted. I can't locate any guidance.

Company owner passes away and Company is sold fairly quickly. All participants continue working for the new owner in same positions. Existing 401(k) plan is terminated by deceased owner's spouse (also a trustee). One participant is over 70 -1/2, is not an owner, is still working. Is he required to take an RMD from his plan account under the terminated plan prior to rollover? The plan document does delay RMDs for non-owners until actual retirement.

We recently took over the administration of an existing 401k plan (safe harbor 3% -- but was SH match years ago). As the actuary was working on the 2017 combined testing and contribution calculation, they noticed that an employee with a rehire date in 2017. Upon collecting the historical employment information, it was determined that the employee should have been allowed to contribute to the 401k plan back in 2009, his first date of rehire (after having met the plan's eligibility during his first employment period from 2/2008 through 9/2008). No problem there; we can calculate the QNEC needed. But the employee then terminated in 2010 and was rehired again in 2012. And then terminated in 2013 and was rehired again in 2017. (Whew!) When I'm calculating the QNEC, do I need to do separate calculations for each year for which he was rehired? Or just for the first rehire period and call it all well and good? Technically, it seems he should have been allowed to defer when he was rehired in September of 2009, and again in July of 2012 and now in 2018 (actually September of 2017).

I have a client with a great number of highly compensated employees. They want to have a different matching formula for some but not all of the HCEs. Can we have a different matching formula based on years of service? How much of a discrepancy would be permitted?

Employee signed up for 401k in June 2016. The appropriate deferral amounts were taken out of his paychecks. But the funds he selected weren't set up, so his contributions went into the default money market account, A year and a half later, he notices this. What correction must be done? Apparently the client had notified the payroll company to start the deductions but never sent the enrollment form to the recordkeeper to set up the chosen fund allocations.

I am looking into training and development courses for 2 employees. One has no 401k experience and the other has some basic knowledge. I know there's a few different organizations out there that offer courses. Right now I'm looking for one that offers the basic ABC's of 401k administration. Any suggestions?

We processed a forfeiture last year that impacted 4 individuals. Three were plan participants so we deducted the forfeitures from their account balances, but the other individual was no longer employed and had withdrawn his account balance. We sent him a notice, but he didn't repay the forfeiture. Now we're considering having this individual do some future work on a subcontractor basis, not as an employee, so he wouldn't be eligible to participate in the plan. Are there any implications for us making future payments to this individual, given that he failed to repay his forfeiture?