"A DB plan is being terminated and I'm filing the Form 5310 and Form 6088 for the plan. Pursuant to the Form 6088 instructions, the plan is deemed 'underfunded' because the sum of the value of benefit liabilities exceeds the value of plan assets. Given these facts, the instructions to the Form 6088 state that if the DB Plan is underfunded, column (g) of the form has to be filed out. Column (g) references ERISA Section 4044 which provides the priority ordering allocation of plan assets based on whether participants made contributions, elected annuities, etc. It seems that based on the Form 6088 instructions, column (g) requested allocations must be filled out. But does this only apply to PBGC governed plans or all underfunded DB plans?"

"I was asked for 2021 combo plan designs but now am told that there's a SIMPLE in existence. They cannot do any qualified plan for 2021, correct?"

"Just trying to do some bookkeeping for a few of my new clients. Does anyone have a list of the required annual notices?"

"A company is selling its affiliate. Currently, employees of the affiliate participate in the parent's 401(k) and pension plan. As of the date of sale they will no longer be plan participants. The buyer of the affiliate may or may not establish a plan to benefit the employees it acquires. Many of the employees of the affiliate participating in the parent plan are not vested and they are claiming that given the sale they must become 100% vested. As of the date of the sale they will no longer be participants in the parent 401(k) and DB plans but I'm not aware of a rule that says that the employees of the affiliate must become 100% vested in this situation. There is no partial termination of the parent plans given the sale."

"I have been under the assumption that as depositing employee contributions and loan payments is a prohibited transaction, that once the correction is made and lost earning restored, that Form 5330 needs to be prepared and the excise tax submitted. However, I was reading a class exemption under the Pension Payback Program eliminates the need for filing Form 5330. I think this is explained in Amended PTE 2002-51. Can anyone clarify this class exemption for me?"

"H&W Plan Year is calendar year. One benefit is on a 1/31 policy year. They then have a short plan year that ends on 12/31. So two policy years end within the same plan year. So there are 23 months then to report on the Form 5500. Schedule A only allows for up to 12 months. What to do? Report two Schedule A's for the same policy number, or use the first one only, or use the last one only?"

"A 403(b) plan has all assets held in custodial accounts. Can a participant take a hardship from the employer contribution account? The new regs prevent taking employer QNEC and QMAC from custodial accounts, but what about an account that holds only matching contributions?"

"Single member LLC filing as sole-prop; has employees for the past 7 years. Sole-prop Joe has an existing solo 401k plan. Stopped contributing when hired employees. Never informed the custodian about the new employees. Never informed the employees about the existing plan. Never filed Form 5500 (but assume less than $250k in assets). My take:

• As all employees are eligible to participate in the 401k plan and are participants, 5500 forms needed to be filed even if the only account balance is for the owner. So possibly missing 5+ years of filings no matter what's the account balance.
• All eligible employees should have been provided the option to defer, so now there's a violation.
• How will the custodian handle the fact that it wasn't told that the plan could no longer be a solo plan?
• Not even sure if the documents are up to date.

Other than hiring an attorney to fix all this, what else can be done? They want to set up a cash balance plan for 2021 combined with 401k plan. I can amend the 401k plan for 2021 but how about with all missed opportunities etc?"

"Employer maintains an individually designed CB plan started in 2002 and a 401(k) plan with an employier match of up to 6% of comp. CB plan has annual compensation credit schedule which increases with age to 47.75% of comp at age 64 and above. Recently the status change to former key of certain employees was not entered in plan records. TH status of plans not changed by exclusion of accounts of former keys. FKs continue to be be credited with comp credit each year under CB plan, have not been contributing to 401(k), so no match. Plans are required to be tested together and are top-heavy. Each plan contains provision in case non-key employee covered by both plans in TH year. 401(k) plan provides that provision in CB plan controls. CB plan provides, in part, such non-key employee shall receive an allocation (including matching contributions) under 401(k) plan 'equal to 5% of comp for TH year (or such lesser amount as is permitted by applicable regulations to take into account benefits earned under this plan)' (emphasis added). (This provision has been in CB plan from initial adoption and five DL issuances, with latest DL issued this year.

[1] May the "offset" to the 5% amount be relied upon? [2] If so, to what extent? (Each affected FK accrues a substantial percentage comp credit in CB plan each year and has already accrued CB plan benefit greater than 20% of FAP. [3] May the 5% be offset completely by the greater than 20% benefit already accrued and the greater than 40% annual comp credit under the CB plan? (Regulations at M-12 recognize that IRC 416(f) precludes, in the case of employees covered under both DB and DC plans, either required duplication or inappropriate omission.)"

"Has anyone seen a sample or template for the new CAA Broker Compensation Disclosure form?"