"We have a client with two plans (DB & 401k), and there are only two participants - the owner and his mother. They have asked if they must have a bond. I think that since technically it is an ERISA plan, a bond would be required, but it is only owner and momHow would you suggest I respond?"

"Hi, I'm new to the board and I have a bit of an odd question. I'm dealing with an employer that was a party to a CBA in the past and part of the CBA required contributions for health and welfare to a multi employer trust. The Union unilaterally decertified some years ago, which prompted the Trust to perform an audit. In performing the audit, the trust determined that health and welfare benefits were owed on certain individuals. However, those individuals expressly opted to not receive the health and welfare from the Trust, because they could not afford their employee portion. As a result, these employees received health benefits through the employers non-CBA health insurance plan used for non-union employees. The Trust indicated that employees could refuse benefits, but they needed to file a form to do so. Obviously, these forms were never made available to the employees, nor did the employees know about this form. However, the employees expressly refused the Trust benefits to the employer, and did not want money withheld from their checks for contributions to the trust. The trust is seeking past due contributions from October 2010 through October 2017. The trust admits that no health and welfare benefits were paid to these employees, and it is clear that the trust will never (nor can it ever) provide health and welfare benefits to these individuals pursuant to its own Trust agreement. Anyone aware of any cases where a trust is seeking contributions for unpaid health and welfare benefits where the Trust never paid for the benefits in the first place? I will also note that the trust was not a self insurer in this instance. Pursuant to the CBA, the Trust was to purchase health and welfare insurance for the employees. It was not utilizing a pooled account. Let me know if anyone has any thoughts. Thank you."

"I have a two S Corporations (employee-shareholder) and I have three unrelated employees. My wife has a sole proprietorship (schedule C). We have kids under 21, so we are part of a "controlled group." One of my S Corporations (the one with employees) has a safe-harbor 401(k) with 3% employer contribution (regardless of elective deferrals). I want to make sure I'm doing this right . . . . my salary from the first S Corporation is $60,000 and is $20,000 for the second S Corporation . . . . my employer contributions is 3% x (60,000 + 20,000) and my employee contribution is $19,500. My wife has self-employment income from her sole proprietorship of $50,000. She is able to be a plan participant under the "controlled group" rules and her employee contribution is $19,500 and her employer contribution is 3% x $50,000. The Safe Harbor 401(k) I have set up include profit sharing as well. If we decide to do a 10% profit sharing one year, I would have an additional $8,000 (10% x ($60,000 plus $20,000)) and my wife would have have an additional $5,000 ($50,000 x 10%). Does that all sound correct?"

"I was married for 25 years. When we got divorced my ex warn me not to go after any of his finances or he would come after me. When I went to the court date the judge saw I wasn't asking for anything and said "Oh no honey, I don't agree with this so I am leaving it open in case you change your mind". My ex worked for 30 years for the same company and does have a pension. While my ex was on vacation he had a massive heart attack and died in August 2018. My ex never paid attention to important paperwork so when he died my 3 kids had to go to probate court to get ownership of his 2 homes. I decided to get an attorney to go after the pension, so she has amend my divorce from 2005 requesting his 401k and pension, she also did a death QDRO. I go to court on March 16th of 2020. Is there anything any of you can recommend I ask the judge for? My ex was 60 years old when he died and had not retired. Thank you for any advice you can give me."

"Am I making this up is this a technical term? I though if you were IBM with 10,000 people, if you excluded 2 people out of your test you were still ok becauyse there was a recognition that you were never going to have perfect data, and essentially close enough was ok. I don;t think I made the term up. Anyone have a definition?"

"Is there any restriction on transferring assets from a non-ERISA 403b plan of an employer to the newly established 403(b) plan of that same employer? Assume of course that both plans permit such transfers."