"A municipality wants to set up a DC plan under which retiring employees can defer their accumulated PTO bank when they retire. The municipality has been told (not by me) that it can set up a 401(a) defined contribution plan for this purpose. The leave bank will be the only source of contributions to the plan (no amounts other than the PTO bank contributed by the municipality or the employees). Employees won't be required to contribute their leave bank, they will also have the option to receive a payout at retirement in a (taxable) lump sum. I can't fit this situation under any of the PLR's, and am concerned this this is really an impermissible "cash or deferred election." Any thoughts? Has anyone seen this type of set-up before? What if I drafted the plan so that employees were required to defer their leave bank at retirement (i.e., try to turn the leave bank into a "mandatory contribution") I am aware that these amounts can be deferred under a 457(b) plan - but some employees have leave banks that are much larger than the annual limit under 457(b)."

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"Company ABC owned over 80% (but not 100%) by Joe and sponsors DB plan (started 2021) Company XYZ was owned by Joe 60% but sold in 2020 (i.e. not in existence when the plan has started) In each case, the remaining ownerships were unrelated. Joe has 125k average salary since 2021 paid from Company ABC that is used for DB plan purposes. Going back to years 2015/2016/2017 (*prior to plan inception), Joe had 150k salary each from Company ABC and Company XYZ i.e. 300k in total/per year. To determine Joe's 415 lump sum for 2024, what is Joe's salary? Assuming that you can use the 300k average (obviously limiting to 401(a)(17)), can you point to a code section to back this up or a starting point?"

"Facts: There are multiple defined contribution retirement plans sponsored by the same plan sponsor within one contract at John Hancock Life Insurance Company (a group annuity contract). The investments are pooled. Question: Should plans configured this way have a master trust agreement and follow the master trust reporting requirements for Form 5500's? If the answer is no, is there any guidance or rule that explains this?"

"Are there any land mines on the discrimination or other 125 plan road for an employer that maintains two IRC Section 125 plans for the benefit of its workforce? Must the two plans be aggregated for discrimination testing?"

"The correction rules for nonqualified plans differ depending on whether the affected employee is an insider or not. If an employee was an insider in the past as defined by IRS Notice 2008-113 by virtue of his status as an officer while he was employed, is he still considered an insider for these correction rules after termination of employment?"

"We have a client XX that was acquired by YY in 2021, but they opted to merge the YY 401k plan into the XX plan rather than the other way around (usually the seller's plan transfers into the buyer's plan). The assets transferred in June 2022. As part of the merger, they changed the plan name and the plan EIN of the XX plan to the YY plan name and EIN effective 6/30/22 The issue is a final 5500 was filed for the legacy YY plan for PY 2022 (after assets transferred to XX). But that same EIN is still being used for the current merged plan. I, along with the plan auditor, suggested amending the plan number of the current merged plan to 002. The recordkeeper, however, is saying that in order to change the plan's three digit number from 001 to 002, a final 5500 needs to be filed for 001 showing assets going to zero. The 'transfer out' from the XX plan and into the YY plan would be captured in Schedule H showing a 'transfer' to YY-002.

"I understand that if a plan terminates or transfers/mergers, then a final 5500 should be prepared. But the plan did not terminate in this case. The seller's plan name and EIN were amended to match the buying company's name and EIN. I'm thinking there should be a retro amendment changing the 3 digit plan number of the current merged plan to 002. Amend the 2022 XX filing to reflect the changes of Plan Name, EIN, and plan number in line 4 of Part II. Then the Final 5500 for the legacy YY plan should be amended to have plan 002 in the 5(b)(3) box of Part IV of Compliance questions. I feel like this would be the most logical and easiest for the DOL to follow. But I've been receiving conflicting information, from ERISA counsel, on whether it's required to file a Final 5500 if you're changing a three digit plan number."

"I was previously making large contributions to my DB plan. These contributions were invested aggressively which caused DB plan assets to over-perform At the same time, I was not increasing my W-2 salary in my S-Corp. I cannot increase my salary as it will impact my tax liability (I have other high income). What I would like to do is terminate my DB plan and rollover the DB plan assets to my Solo 401k plan. If I do that, I can invest the rolled over assets aggressively without worrying about over-performance. The max lump sum is currently around $1,022,000 (this is the approximate amount I can roll over if I terminate the DB plan now). The current market value of DB plan assets is around $1,102,500 and so, the excess assets on termination will be around $80,500. The assets are held as cash with a broker but it still accrues interest from their sweep program (there's no way to avoid this). But keeping it all in cash means I'm not aggressively growing the DB plan assets for retirement. Also, the max lump sum will keep going down every year since I'm not increasing my W-2 salary. And due to the sweep program, the cash with the broker will keep going up by around $4,000 every quarter. My TPA has said if I transfer the excess to a suspense account in a 401k QRP, I can only allocate 25% of salary each year. But I have read several topics here where contributors have confirmed it is 100%. I can ensure the 401k QRP will have no salary deferral and profit sharing contributions for the next 7 years. This will allow me to pay myself at least $11,500 yearly salary and allocate it every year for 7 years to fully absorb the excess. My TPA is not replying to my emails about the allocation% and plan termination. So, I would like to hire another TPA to get the DB plan terminated and rolled over to the 401k QRP. Given the above, if you're interested in taking over my DB plan, please send me a private message."

"GENERAL QUESTION not based on a specific example. In General Terms, for DB Plan Administrators who are granted 'discretionary authority' by their Plan Documents, how much can they allow 'exceptions' to written rules in the Plan's documents or Instruments before they face potential liability(i.e. potential litigation) for abuse of discretionary authority?"

"Say a fully-vested DB Plan Participant leaves (either voluntarily or involuntarily) the company providing said DB Plan. After several years, said employee returns to employment with the same company which is still offering the same DB Plan. Does the Plan Administrator need to have the employee/participant 'reaffirm', in writing, the designated beneficiary for said benefit in the event of death of the participant?"

"Does anyone know of a good summary of what specific MANDATORY SECURE/2.0 provisions specifically do apply to a Governmental 501(c)(3) non-ERISA 403(b Plan? A small list, I know, but it would be handy to have."

"It has been a long time since I've had a 401k plan not refund within 2.5 months. Now I've got one, and I was positive that the earnings on the refund were included in the amount reported on the 5330... but that's not what the instructions seem to say. It says the tax is on the excess contributions and are the amounts 'actually paid' over what was allowed.... and doesn't mention earnings. Am I just mis-remembering this rule? Is it really just the base amount of the refund that gets taxed? If the earnings are included, is there a cite for that?"