"We have a plan that's suddenly terminating in a few weeks. One of the participants have an outstanding loan that they want to payoff, prior to taking a distribution. Does that have to be done prior to the Plan Termination, or can they pay it off via personal check a few weeks after the Plan Termination date?"

"Having a debate with someone in my office. For the participant count on the Form 5500, if someone becomes eligible do you include them for the Beginning of the Year count (for Active and Total Participants)? Or do you not, so the number of participants at the beginning of the year matches the number for the ending of the year of the previous Form 5500?"

"If you have a moment on a summer afternoon, I'd welcome your sharing of information and experiences. For a small-business retirement plan that is not ERISA-governed (because all participants, including eligibles, are self-employed individuals): Do you know which State's law governs your client's plan? Does your client know which State's law governs one's plan? How often is the governing law not an adoption-agreement choice? How often does a service provider cause the plan to specify a State law the service provider prefers? Have you ever seen a situation in which the State law governing the plan matters?"

"The vesting for all existing participants in a profit sharing plan was increased to 100% because it has been many years since the last contribution was made. The plan hasn't been terminated because the trustee is always optimistic that one day he'll be able to contribute. My question is, must all new participants also be shown as being 100% vested, or should this happen only after they've been in the plan a few years if no contributions are made (the plan has a 2/20 vesting schedule)? The document is silent on this."