"What are the consequences if a plan allows self-certification of hardships and participants either lie or just don't understand the rules and take withdrawals that are not covered under the Safe Harbor rules? Does the participant get in trouble? Does the plan sponsor? What about a 3(16) Plan Administrator? (And side note, are self-certifications relegate to only SH reasons? Or can it be applied to a facts & circumstances provision?)"

"Where can I get a copy of the current ERISA, updated currently? I'd like to do some research on something and I want to use the primary source."

"I have participant who would like to name his daughter as his primary beneficiary on all retirement plan related accounts. The participant's wife is so impaired she is unable to execute a spousal consent on the beneficiary designation. The participant has Power of Attorney for all purposes regrading his wife. Is this sufficient for the spousal consent section of his beneficiary designation?"

"Can anyone recommend firm to help cancel our QDRO. My edifies and I separated very amicably. At time of divorce, we had a QDRO submitted, giving her 1% of my federal pension so she could maintain fed health benefits. She subsequently got a job w NYS, negating the need for the QDRO. For several reasons, we want to cancel/negate it. No one seems to know how, some even say it cant be done. Any advice?"

"As a TPA, I have some clients that like to provide for Profit Sharing allocations, under Each in Own Class allocation formula, during the relevant plan year. After the year ends, we receive census data and prepare our cross-testing for allocations. The question is, if a client contributes in excess of a minimum benefit that we calculate, would it be permitted to forfeit that money from the participant account? How about offsetting for future year contributions? My thoughts are that this may violate the Exclusive Benefit Rule with some overlap on Anti-cutback. Essentially, once money is deposited to an employee account, it becomes a plan asset. Plan assets are for the Exclusive Benefit of employees and beneficiaries. Reasons to return plan assets need to fall into Mistake of Fact, Disallowance of Deduction, or Failure to initially qualify with the IRS. To me, this boils down to, is this 'prefunding' considered a mistake of fact? I would argue that it is not because they did not violate terms of the plan and no clerical or mathematical mistake was made. The sponsor decided to fund based on preliminary numbers. Interested to hear thoughts from others."

"Please respond, I am very curious to know if there is a consensus on how the DOL's new program will be used!"

"I'm taking over a solo 401(k) Plan that has exceeded the $250k in assets and therefore need to file the Form 5500. It used an Adoption Agreement, but what I was provided was dated back in 2018. I'm just confirming, even these types of plans had to be restated prior to July 31, 2022 correct? With the need to provide the date/serial number for the restatement on the Form 5500, I wanted to make sure."