"We have a non-profit client that is terminating its 403(b) plan effective 12/31/20 and is going to be able to pay everyone out. It's starting a 401(k) plan effective 1/1/21. They're getting close to the audit threshold and need to put in eligibility requirements (even the 20 hours/week is problematic). They're impatient about the 2020 employer contribution, though. The question asked is whether it could be made to the 401k plan so that they can pay out the current accounts now, instead of waiting for them to get us census, etc. which could mean the distributions wouldn't happen until mid-2021. That isn't a problem legally, but it incurs plan-level fees they'd like to avoid. My immediate response was 'no'... but am I overlooking anything?"

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"Newly established DB plan -- 7/1/2020 to 6/30/2021. The owner's spouse was an employee in the past and was part of a terminated DB plan, 10+ years ago. I believe he may have been a part owner back then, no information on that. He's been working for the company but hasn't received any salary for the past 10 years. Does it matter if he's been working less than 501 hours per year (or even less than 1000 hours per year)? They want to include him in the new plan. He will start taking salary as of 1/1/2021 (i.e., mid-year). Does the plan need a special eligibility amendment, or is he assumed to have had employment for eligibility in the past? I believe yes. Becasue he had nonforfeitable rights in the old DB plan, the rule of parity does not pay a role here -- correct?"

"At first we (our TPA firm) were thinking that a CARES Act amendment would not be required for plans that do not offer the distributions or loan provisions described in the CARES Act. But, because there is a provision in the Act allowing suspension of RMD's for 2020 (and all our documents include RMD language), we're now thinking that adopting the amendment for all of our plans would be the most prudent course, even if no participants in a plan are in RMD status. Agree?

Also, we're behind in our amendments, so haven't yet amended for the HBBA 2018. We had intended to wait until after 2021 tax season (early August) to amend for both. Is there any reason why we shouldn't?"

"We have a plan with 3 vendors. There will be a fund replacement for one of them. How does the plan go about providing a 30-day notice? Would the notice go to all active and terminated participants, no matter who the vendor? I'm assuming most recordkeepers won't distribute notices on behalf of another. Does the plan need to handle the distribution themselves?"

"Sponsor FY is 7/1/2020 to 6/30/2021 and the DC+CB plans are the same period. Working with a DC person and set up a CB plan for 7/30/2020 year-end and did not need to aggregate the plans for testing. For the 6/30/2020 year-end, the compensation was FY of the corporation under the CB plan. It just worked.

I just got a copy of the updated document for the DC plan (signed 12/1/2020) and noticed that compensation is defined (i.e., checked, on an adoption agreement) as calendar year ending within the FY. So I have 2 plans to test but 2 different compensation definitions. I must aggregate the plans for this year -- I don't have a choice.

Any suggestions on what to do? I am trying to have them change the definition of compensation (may also need the HCE determination but that's another story). How can I test 2 different compensation definition?"

"If you use one, what type of workflow tracking software do you use to manage your firm's caseload? Pension Pro? Pension Pal? Other software? In-house database/spreadsheet? We are looking to alternatives to what we do now. I've used Pension Pro, and it may be too robust for us. I'm not sure whether there's a scaled-down version, but at the one company I worked for that used it, it seemed a bit complicated with all the task assigning and stuff."