"Two brothers each own 50% of Corp A and 50% of Corp B. Corps A & B are completely different business entities and have no business between the two. Because their common ownership is 100% of both corps, I am assuming they are a controlled group. Correct?"

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"Client has a pooled trustee directed 401k trust. Trustee has a 5 year fixed annuity held in the plan showing the Trustee as the annuitant and the 401k plan as the beneficiary. Annuity has matured and funds were distributed to the plan in 2020. Client received a Form 1099-R reflecting this as a distribution with the Plan as the Taxpayer and code 1 as the distribution code. This doesn't seem right to me but this is about the only annuity I have held in a plan so wanted to be sure I'm not leading the client astray. Should a 1099-R have been issued in this case? I would say not because it was distributed from the plan to the plan."

"Employee requested a COVID-related distribution from 401(k) plan. Custodian has come back and told the employer that the SSN provided for the employee 'does not exist according to the IRS database' and they cannot issue a distribution without a valid SSN. I presume this was actually determined using the Social Security Number Verification System (SSNVS), but I'm not positive. There's no suggestion that this is a duplicate SSN or actually belongs to another person, etc. Employer has had no issues with wage reporting for the SSN. Employee insists the SSN is correct.

Can the custodian (a bank) refuse to make the distribution from the plan based on the info from the SSNVS? I know they need an SSN for the 1099, but they have a number to use that is not linked to anyone else. Does a bank have an obligation to verify an SSN before making payment?"

"I won my case against my pension plan. They breached the terms of a QDRO and my rights. Paying all back payments with interest and reinstating my monthly benefits. That's great, but can I file to get all my lawyer fees back? This was a domestic relations civil case. And I should have never been in court if they would have not lied and cheated me. I am in Pennsylvania. Are there cases texts or laws I can look at?"

"Hope someone can clarify this situation for me on the correct titling of my solo 401k plan (traditional 401K & Roth 401K accounts). I operate a business as a professional corporation (PC) with myself as the only employee and adopted an updated plan recently with Etrade as a simplified (prototype) 401k plan, Etrade is the custodian & I am the trustee. I amended my former Corporate 401K documents held at Vanguard by transferring balances that are in excess of $250K to Etrade. Etrade insists that the title of my brokerage accounts account is my personal name (not the corporation name), i.e., Joe Doe individual 401K plan -- NOT Joe Doe, PC 401K Plan FBO John Doe (same for Roth 401K account), even though I completed the plan applications in the PC's name as the business (Etrade has my 401K account statements, which are in my personal name -John Doe Individual 401K Plan).

I think the statements must be in the PC's name & Etrade says it does not matter since the account was set up in the PC name on their records (not shown anywhere on statements) and they are only the custodian. Who is correct? Do I have a potential problem of an invalid plan? Will my corporate contributions to this plan be a problem? What about filing form 5500EZ? Will this be a problem if plan name does not match statements name?"

"It's been a while since I completed a 1099-R for a beneficiary, so I just wanted to confirm. We use the name/SSN for the beneficiary and if they rolled it over it goes as a G, correct? Or do I use Code 4?"