"We have a retiring executive in our NQ Plan (subject to 409A) and we have no record of his distribution election. We know how much we owe him, just not the time and form of payment. We don't want to allow the executive to make a new election now, for obvious reasons. Our solution is to pay under the Plan's default rules. We know this is not perfect, but we don't have another option. In addition, we are going to allow the participant (if he wants to) to sign an affidavit that confirms [1] my actual election was _____, [2] that election was made timely under the 409A rules (i.e. prior to the year the amount in question was deferred), and [3] in the event the IRS finds this affidavit (and payment thereunder) violates 409A, the company is not responsible for any adverse tax effects. Obviously, this is a bad situation and no solution is perfect. Has anyone else run into this and/or do you have a better solution?"

"I have a plan failing coverage. So, I'd like to start pulling in ineligible employees, but I'm stuck on which to add. I don't have any more active employees I can add, so I'm looking at termed EEs.... The problem is, all of the EEs had the same number of hours & termed on the same day (part of the business was sold off). Can I start bringing them in based on lowest wages?"

"When terminating a 401k plan, I am confused about when a Notice to Interested Parties is required. Is a Notice required a certain number of days before Form 5310 filed? Or is a Notice required a certain number of days before the Plan is actually amended to terminate? We have adopted a Board Resolution to terminate later in the year. However, we want to file Form 5310 now. So I wasn't sure if a Notice needed to be sent to participants before the 5310 filing or if that Notice can be done in several months, which would be closer to the actual Plan termination date."