"We don't administer very many plans that have insurance but this particular plan is a one participant traditional defined benefit plan that we inherited. When the plan was established, the proper amount of insurance was purchased (no more than 100x the projected benefit). Is this 100x rule effective just for the year the insurance was put in place? I would think so for the following reasons: [1] The company could have an unexpected downturn in business resulting in smaller average compensation and therefore a smaller benefit than anticipated. [2] The plan could be frozen at some point for a few years or so and then the participant might end up with a smaller benefit than what the original projected benefit was."

"A proposed arrangement would provide installment payments to an employee (or beneficiary) over a period up to 3 years only upon the employee's disability or death that occurs while employed and prior to a change in control of the employer. The 409A regs provide that 409A does not apply to a plan to the extent that it provides disability pay or death benefits. For this purpose, 'disability pay' and 'death benefits' are defined under the FICA regs.

"The FICA regs (31.3121(v)(2)-1(b)(3)(iv)) provide that payments under a plan in the event of disability are disability pay to the extent that the disability benefits payable under the plan exceed the lifetime benefits payable under the plan. The regs define 'lifetime benefits' as the present value of the benefits that could be payable to the employee under the plan during the employee's lifetime. Because the only other benefits payable under the plan would be after the employee's death, it appears that the payments upon disability are 'disability pay' not subject to 409A.

"Similarly, the FICA regs provide that payments under a plan in the event of death are death benefits to the extent that the total benefits payable under the plan exceed the lifetime benefits payable under the plan. Using the same definition of 'lifetime benefits' as above, it appears that the disability payments (which could be payable during the employee's lifetime) would prevent the death payments from qualifying as 'death benefits,' thus subjecting the arrangement to 409A. But this seems like an odd result, considering the similarity of the provisions for disability pay and death benefits, so is there an argument that benefits that constitute 'disability pay' are disregarded in determining 'lifetime benefits' so that the death payments constitute 'death benefits' and the entire arrangement is not covered by 409A?"

"[F]or those 5500's we file, we always request a written signature on an annual basis to file 5500's on behalf of Plan Sponsors (we only do this for the super small plans). Generally, they email a pdf with the signature. Has anyone transitioned to getting this authorization by email only? ie. have the plan sponsor respond yes by email without a wet signature?"

"I'm in need of an electrician and my business happens to have an electrician as a client. What is a best practice protocol? I'm not interested in getting any kind of discount so I hesitate to inform the owner that I'm reaching out to their business for fear they might offer a special rate. But I worry that best practice is I should let them know first."

"Clearly if the participant earned in excess of the dollar threshold, any catch up contributions would be funded as Roth Contributions. What happens if the plan fails the ADP test and funds are 'reclassified' Roth contributions? I would image the requirement to fund catch up with Roth would not apply in this case since the contributions were part of the 402(g) limit, funded with pre tax and not a REAL catch up. Am I correct?"

"If the Plan Sponsor did not inform an employee of their eligibility (and did not provide any 401(k) documents to the participant), what would be the correction procedure? The plan is a 4% Safe Harbor Match plan. Only HCEs deferred, so we don't know the NHCE ADP."

"For example, if a missed nonelective contribution for a participant should have been deposited on day 1, and the corrective contribution was deposited on day 100, earnings would of course be calculated from day 1 through day 100. What if the earnings contribution is not deposited until day 150? Must the earnings calculation be adjusted to also account for the additional 50 days it took to deposit the earnings contribution -- or is the calculation only of earning from day 1 through 100 sufficient?"