"Anyone dealt with the issue of how an annulled marriage impacts a beneficiary designation? Participant designates sister as beneficiary and then gets married. The spouse becomes the beneficiary under the plans terms (no spousal consent for sister to remain beneficiary). The marriage is later annulled? Is the marriage treated as if it didn't happen, which in effect reinstates the sister as beneficiary?"

"Our company is being acquired by a foreign parent company, and I'm trying to understand how this impacts our SIMPLE IRA plan. Specifically, do the employees of the foreign entities in the controlled group (including the new parent company and its other subsidiaries outside the U.S.) count toward the 100-employee maximum for SIMPLE IRA eligibility?"

"A DB plan (traditional DB) with owner and wife in plan (both owners) and employees. In early 2022, the plan's benefit formula was amended from 2% of average Compensation per year of service to 3% per year of service. The owner had been battling an illness, and passed away towards the end of 2022. When the 2022 valuation was done (year end 12/31/22 val date), inadvertently the original 2% of comp per yr of service, was still used. This was noticed after the fact, after the 2022 5500 had been filed already.

"The 2023 val was preformed with using the amended formula of 3% of average compensation. Being that as of 12/31/ 2022 the accrued benefit for the owner was supposed to have been based on 3% of comp, the AB for the owner in the 2023 valuation was input based on the 3% as of 12/31/2022.

"The valuation and filing for 2022 was not amended to properly match the 2022 plan amendment of 3% of average compensation per yr of service. And therefore, the AB for the owner shown in the 2023 val does not match the AB shown for him in the 2022 val, (although of course they should match, since there were no further accruals for the owner after the 2022 plan year) .

"If the 2022 year is under examination, can the 2022 valuation and 5500 be amended now to properly reflect the plans specs of 3%? (as a val should properly match the plan document specs).

"Yes, there is a general concept that you can't file an amended 5500 that changes the specs (ie originally filed based on 2% of comp and now amending based on 3% of comp). However, in this case, since the 2023 valuation shows the owners AB based on using 3% for 2022, this clearly indicates that the 2022 was supposed to have been originally filed based on the amendment of 3%?"