"When a plan designates someone else such as the custodian of the assets as a directed Trustee, would that entity be the one signing plan documents as Trustee, even though the Plan Sponsor/Administrator theoretically still also has the additional role of Plan Trustee?"

[Sponsored]

Written by Lorraine Dorsa, this is a must-have for ERISA pros working with traditional and cash balance defined benefit plans. Covers DB/CB combo plans and DB plan corrections. Please contact jpecina@erisapedia.com for more information.

"Medical practice sponsors 401(k). Doctor/owner (over age 60) deferred $20,500 for 2022, due to miscalculation by office mgr/wife). Can we get him to max by reclassifying part of deferrals to catch-up and allocating match and extra PS to get him to max $67,500? (means we will have to do more for NHCEs, but he is okay with that.)"

"Fairly typical situation: someone at the plan sponsor misinterprets the eligibility rules, and New EE is allowed to defer long before the eligibility provisions allow. The plan sponsor is OK with correcting this via a retroactive amendment (it's just one person and this is the first time it's happened for this plan). The plan is a 3% SH that we calculate (and they deposit) after the end of the year, and the plan is also top heavy. [1] If the amendment is limited to allow the affected participant to defer only and doesn't 'bring him in' for any other contribution (including the safe harbor), is the plan still a valid safe harbor plan? [2] If yes to #1, then might we also lose the top heavy exemption? I've got a sense that an EPCRS SCP correction shouldn't cause a failure in the plan, but that seems like it shouldn't apply here because we're still doing administration for the year in question. Obviously, the simple answer here is to make the amendment say that he's eligible for the safe harbor as well (especially since he's going to get 3% as top heavy minimum), and that's usually what we do, but I'm just making sure of their options."