"An employer maintains two § 401(a)-(k) plans, one for manufacturing employees, who are union-represented, and another for office employees, none of whom is union-represented. The employer is considering merging the two plans into one. The plan for office employees uses a safe-harbor matching contribution to meet rules about coverage, nondiscrimination, and top-heavy. Even after the plans’ merger, there would be no risk, even with substantial growth in both headcounts, that the merged plan’s participant count would reach a number that calls for engaging an independent qualified public accountant. The employer is not worried about a tax-qualification defect for either plan. Are there other reasons for not merging the plans? Are there other reasons to prefer the hygiene of separate plans?"

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"A sponsor and a job applicant were 99% sure the applicant would become an employee of the sponsor. While final negotiations was taking some time, the applicant rolled in money from a prior company to this sponsor's 401k plan, this sponsor signed approval of the roll-in, and the roll-in was completed, and an account holding assets was created for a non-employee roll-in to this plan. Then the negotiations fell apart without the applicant ever becoming an employee (though in this case, the applicant may still become an employee in the next 6-12 months). I've no background on this to even know where to begin asking questions, but here goes....... Is this a violation of ERISA type rules? Is it an automatic violation of plan document design? What type of penalties exist? Must the plan disgorge the assets back to "never-employee" immediately? Does the "never employee" now have rights as a current plan participant? Can they just treat this "never-employee" account balance as a terminated employee? Does it have any impact on testing? Would it impact the count for plan audit status? Any thoughts on how to address this are appreciated."