"Does anyone know if there is a floor for the mandatory Withholding requirement? I know that you don't have to issue a Form 1099-R if the distribution is less than $10, but is there mandatory withholding on the $10? If not, does anyone know what that floor would be?"

"A plan is terminating and there are several DB participants who will not complete their distribution forms. It is a PBGC plan. Two participants are still employed and so I think they can be coerced. The other terminated a year ago. All have $5,000 to $7,500 balances. I'm told by the actuary that no insurance company will quote on something that small and that completing the form is the only option. Well if they won't, then what? We are told their balances may not be transferred to IRA, the PBGC or state unclaimed funds. The plan sponsor was acquired and the acquiring company has a 401(k) plan, but certainly spousal consent would be needed to transfer the funds. About all I could tell the sponsor to do was 'threaten' in a nice way the two still employed to fill out their forms and go to the home of the terminated participant and be a nuisance. Comments?"

"For a money purchase plan participant, the only asset in her account is a life insurance policy with a cash surrender value. She has to take required minimum distributions so i assume the RMD would be take each year from her cash surrender value. Agree? However, the plan sponsor was not aware of the ability to use cash surrender value for RMD and instead used other plan assets to pay her RMD through the years. Now the policy has a zero cash surrender value. Would you agree that the employer has the responsibility to make the plan whole given that the cash surrender value is zero?"

"A plan participant needs spousal consent since he wants to receive 100% of his accrued pension benefit. However, the spouse is in Haiti, and they have not spoken in years, and numerous attempts to contact her have not been successful. Is there any relief available here, or will he just have to keep trying to get the spousal consent or elect a 50% QJSA?"

"Participant divorced his spouse in the 2000s. The divorce decree directed that a QDRO be drafted to split the participant's retirement account 50% between the participant and spouse/alternate payee for the period of the marriage. A QDRO was never received by the fund, however. Participant and spouse/alternate payee the get remarried several years later. Participant recently applied for pension benefits. Does the fund need to find out whether a QDRO was drafted? Does the fund need this QDRO before processing the participant's application for benefits?"

"A single employer has sponsored two 401(k) plans for many years. One covered employees hired prior to a specific date and the other covered employees hired after a specific date. All 30 employees of the company are covered by one plan or the other depending on when they were hired. Both plans are now much the same. The employer now wants to just maintain one 401(k) plan and cover all employees under one plan. There has not been any company sale or acquisition here. Are there a number of special rules involved in merging plans like these?"

"Seller is a subsidary of holding company. Holding company sponsors the health plan that seller's employees participate in. Purchaser buys seller from holding company and merges seller into purchaser. My thought is tat seller employees, who are merged into purchaser post-close, receive two 1095s: 1 from holding company that sponsored health plan pre-merger and 1 from purchaser? Does that sound correct?"

"Retired partipant remarries, then dies (his alternate payee/ex-wife preceded him in death). Full retirement plans from two aerospace companies. Is the second wife (his surviving spouse) entitled to any of his pension benefits?"

"My husband retired from two major aerospace companies that were bought out by Boeing. My husband divorced his first wife, obtained a QDRO during their divorce process. The QDRO was entered into the divorce record with the court. Later, we married. I want to get a copy of both of his two ORIGINAL private pension plans, but I am not sure how or where to begin looking for these documents? I do not trust the Boeing Pension Dept. They hired a third party firm to handle retirees' pensions. In the last 8 years since my husband's passing, the Pension Plan Division has changed its name at least 3 times as well as the address! They were very unprofessional in helping me to receive a small death benefit policy. They finally issued a check to me, and then nearly 2 years later, sent me a threatening letter saying that unless I sent them a certified copy of my husband's death certificate, I would be responsible for repayment of the one time death benefit payment! I asked them if they really really REALLY have any protocol that would release funds without it then taking nearly two years for them to discover such a breach? I sent them copies of the docs and an envelope with a return receipt from the USPS. Yet they continued to threaten me until I sent ANOTHER certified copy of his death certificate! Finally I complied, again. My originally sending them court-certified copies several times cost me nearly $150 and then it took over 1 year to finally receive the benefit. Then, after all of that, they harrassed me 1-1/2 year later and insistend that I repeat the nightmare.

After all of that, I don't trust them to tell me whether I have any rights as a second spouse and as my husband's survivor (his ex-wife preceeded him in death, and had a QDRO). I know that the QDRO he had with his divorce settlement WAS FILED with the court, though I don't know if copies of BOTH PRIVATE PENSION PLANS were entered into the court record.

I have read that, where an Alternate Payee/Spouse passes away BEFORE the Participant, the Participant is free of the QDRO arrangements. Is a second spouse (subsequent spouse, SURVIVING spouse) entitled to a private pension plan according to ERISA?

Again, I have ZERO TRUST in the Boeing Pension Dept! I am hoping that I can get COPIES of the ORIGINAL private pension plan(s). If I find or need an attorney, it should cost me a lot less if I already have the original document to present to the attorney.

Thank you very much for helping to clarify this!"

"Because I'm distinctly not a DB person, I'll spare you the weirdness of this situation and just ask one small question about a terminating plan that wants to offer a lump-sum window, where the AFTAP is too low to allow it without (in this particular case) going with the special bonding rule to allow the lump sum to a couple of highly paid employees. For these purposes, are the "top 25" HCE's or former HCEs determined under the 414(q) definition, or does it mean the 25 highest paid, regardless of whether they are HCEs under 414(q)?"

"Participant took a CARES Act distribution. He has since died. Can his beneficiary repay the distribution?"

"I have a client (non-ERISA 403(b)), who defaulted on a loan in 2019 (it was also deemed in 2019 and a 1099R issued) who is now 59-½. They want the defaulted loan removed so they can take another loan. I was under the impression that once a client has qualifying event, that they would be able to offset the defaulted loan. But reading the requirements for what offsetting a loan, I don't think it would be allowed because the loan is not in good standing. Outside of the participant paying back the defaulted loan, is there any other option for the participant to 'cure' or 'offset' the defaulted loan? Could they just request the defaulted loan to be 'distributed' to them since they have a qualifying event? In that case, since a 1099R was already issued for the defaulted loan, we wouldn't have to issue another 1099R, right?"

"Say a subsidiary is dissolving but its employee benefit plans are moving to the parent company. Aside from some definition and title changes in the plan documents and an assumption agreement signed by both companies, what else would go into a to-do list for the parent to assume the plans? Filing Form 5500 and 401(k) safe harbor notices as usual? Any notices to employees of plan sponsorship change? I'm new to benefits work and think I must be missing something."