A client has a profit sharing plan with only the owner and his wife as participants. They want to invest the assets in a real estate program of some sort and have decided to terminate the plan and roll its funds into an IRA for each of them. Each IRA will invest in the real estate. But would it be better to keep the money in the plan and let the plan invest in the real estate, if the plan carries more bankruptcy and creditor protection than the IRAs. Does the answer change when only a husband and wife are participants? Does the answer change if they amend and restate the profit sharing plan as a Solo 401(k) plan?

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I am a 1099 independent contractor who has incorporated with an S-corp (one person/employee, which is myself). I've set up a solo-401k in order to make salary deferrals and employer profit-sharing (up to 25% of employee gross pay) to maximize the 55,000 contribution limit. This solo-401k is currently with Fidelity. Recently I learned about cash balance plans. I thought I could just open an account at a place like Schwab, which offers a Personal Defined Benefit Plan, and be able to contribute some amount each year. I am aware this amount is based on age (I'm 32 years old). After reader other discussions online, I am seeing that the total contributions (401k salary deferral, 401k employer contribution, cash balance plan) cannot exceed 31% of payroll. If my annual 1099 income is somewhere in the range of $300-400k, would it make sense to consider adding a cash balance plan? I haven't been able to find clear-cut answers to this. For example, from this calculator (https://www.dedicated-db.com/defined-benefit-plan-calculator/) with a $350k income, I can only do 401k salary deferrals of $18,500, a 401k employer 6% contribution of $16,500 (not profit-sharing), and the defined benefit contribution of $33,400, which is only $68,400. My goal is to save up at least $120k annually in these accounts. With Schwab, it would cost $1,500 annually for their plan. Someone suggested I find a full service provider to manage both my 401k and cash balance plan to ensure everything is in order. Would these companies run numbers for me and let me know if it's worth it or how much I would realistically be able to contribute?

I'm sitting for the CPC exam this June. How similar is the exam to the practice tests? I have passed all of the modules and it seems like the study guide has the same information from the modules. If I just focus on the practice exams will I do well?

After enactment of the ACA much has been written about the DOL 's supposed focus on investigating health plans for ACA, HIPPA and other compliance and there has been anecdotal evidence of a few investigations but is it really a DOL priority? Anybody have experience with any such investigations and if so what DOL Regional Office?

Anybody have experience with an IRS audit of a cafeteria plan for compliance with section 125 non-discrimination testing? Doesn't seem to be something IRS has much interest in.

Participant wishes to suspend her contributions for a few months, not a complete stoppage. She has not taken a hardship distribution. Plan allows for quarterly changes. I assume there needs to be a deferral change form to lower her percentage to 0% as per plan provisions for a change. Would she need to wait until the next quarter to resume contributions using a new change form to bring her percentage back up? If she wants to resume contributing sooner, would the plan need to be amended on a prospective basis, to allow more frequent election changes?

An accountant has asked that we review a DB plan that has been in existence since the late '80s and has been "hard frozen" since the mid-'90s. Plan is subject to PBGC. PBGC filings as well as 5500s with Schedule B/SB have been filed each year. The owner has died, leaving his wife and two adult sons to run the company, who want "absolutely nothing to do with this plan." Apparently this is a "C" corp with the spouse as the 100% owner, the sons as officers. Granted, the plan should have been formally terminated at that time. The way we understand the situation, client told the TPA just "to keep the plan going," not to terminate, and the client wouldn't make a contribution if it could be avoided. Plan kept going because the owner and his two adult sons waived their benefits such that the normal cost each year would be zero. Accountant has asked us to look into terminating the plan after all this time. Any thoughts?

An employer enrolled in a Trust Benefit Plan and as a result is a participating employer. The trust declined to file a Form 5500 (reasons unknown). The participating employer is concerned about being out of compliance and wants to file a 5500 for its employees/enrolled participants, as a single employer. Would this be the correct path? My assumption is that a 5500 could not be listed under a trust because the participating employer is not connected directly to the financials and has no knowledge of the plan's assets.