"We requested ownership information for a client that onboarded with us this year.... This company sent over a cap table, showing columns for common & preferred stock ownership, outstanding and diluted shares, etc for ~60 lines, some of them being employees holding stock, but also a large number of them (40+ or so) being holding firms or other entities that aren't individuals. A few questions.

1. When calculating ownership for 401(k) purposes, is ownership specifically voting stock? Their preferred shares don't have voting rights, so that would impact how ownership % is calculated (CS / total CS vs common & preferred / all stock).
2. How should we handle the potential of control groups? While unlikely, if a combination of those holding firms all held interest in another company that added up to 80%, couldn't we run into a control group issue that we'd have no way to know about?
   1. In this case, I believe the 80% ownership for controlled groups is specifically between 5 or fewer individuals/entities. If the 5 largest stakeholders don't add up to more than 80%, would it be safe to assume we're safe in this regard, as no combination of 5 firms could hit 80% anyways?
3. If someone who held stock at this company also was an owner of any of the holding firms, would they then need attributed ownership from that? E.g if John Doe owned 5% of the shares of this company, but also held 50% of ABC Holdings, which held 10% of this company, would John's ownership be 5% (direct) + 50% * 10% = a total of 10% ownership for plan purposes?'

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"Hello everyone. I'm looking for an automated method to extract financial account activity data from a *.txt file and import it into an Excel file so we can import it into ASC. I'm sure it can be done via AI. I've tried to use Copilot with limited success. Python seems to be a possible solution."

"All employees are HCEs (1 owner.... everyone else earns megabucks). It's just a 401(k) plan.... none of the employees gets an ER Contribution. One of the employees has asked about contributing a VAT contribution. Can this employee still max out 2025 to $70K ($23,500 deferral + $46,500 Voluntary) at this point? Or would any VAT Cont made now be for 2026?"

"Plan provides for a discretionary match (no safe harbor). Match funded payroll basis but is based on year end -- so a true up may be required. April 1, 2025 employer stopped the match -- participants were notified the match would cease as of 4/1/2025. TPA never amended the document to remove the plan year calculation so.... [1] the match for Jan 1 to March 31st would need to be calculated based on annual compensation -- correct? [2] Auditors doing the 5500 audit and stated the participants who entered after 4/1 need to get the match. According to them this is a discrimination issue -- here is where I am looking for some assistance. Discretionary means it can stop/change at any time. Participants who entered after 4/1 do not get a match -- this would not be a benefits rights and feature issue -- do you agree? ACP Testing would be for the full year, but those that entered after 4/1 are not included in the ACP Test -- do you agree?"