A small item in the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA) revived the viability of qualified domestic relations orders (QDROs) entered after the death of a participant. This should concern family law attorneys, employers, plan administrators and TPAs.
Over the years a series of cases have held, ...
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Automatic Enrollment – Time To Plan & Act
Saving for retirement is an important issue facing employers and employees alike. With Social Security's long-term viability in question, employees must be actively involved in creating their own retirement nest egg. One of the best ways an employee can save for retirement is through pre-tax ...
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Form 5500: The Role Of The Accountant And The Audit Report
What is an accountant's role in your annual return/report (Form 5500)? Conventional wisdom says that accountants or auditors have an integral role to play in the preparation of the annual report for employee benefit plans, from both a financial and a regulatory standpoint. However, the scope of ...
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Third Party Administrator Agreements: What To Include
Once you've gone through all the trouble and expense of figuring out what types of retirement plan administration services you require and the specific type of TPA that will best meet those needs, you need to have a clear and comprehensive written services agreement with whichever TPA you retain to ...
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Mishandling And Backdating ERISA Benefit Plans: Crime And Punishment
Most of our readers know that various penalties may be imposed for failure to file returns or information statements on a timely basis with either the IRS or the Department of Labor (DOL), the principal regulators of retirement and welfare benefit plans. But what about potential criminal liability ...
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The Value Enhanced Pension Practitioner: From Good To Great In Six Steps
The training and development of contract service providers and pension consultants usually includes a heavy emphasis on checklists, testing, compliance calendars and the satisfaction of various filing or disclosure deadlines. However, as this article illustrates, taking your practice from good to ...
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Office Expense-Sharing Arrangements And Your Retirement Plan!
Potential benefit problems in connection with expense-sharing arrangements…
This article highlights some of the risks and potential problems for the retirement plans (and other employee benefits) of professionals who participate in invalid or improperly documented office expense-sharing ...
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Form 5500 And Other Responsibilities: Do You Understand Your CPA’s And TPA’s Roles?
Retirement plan management responsibilities for tasks like Form 5500 filings are often a team effort. In the past we've written about the roles of your in-house team (see Make Sure Your 'In-House' Benefits People Understand Their Responsibility And Liability). Today we direct your attention to the ...
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Scrivener’s Errors – What To Do?
Like an ink stain on otherwise clean white carpet, a scrivener's error is a problem, an embarrassment, begging for attention. The current dilemma facing plan sponsors and their advisers is what to do with them? Should, or must, they be professionally cleaned (that is, corrected under the IRS's ...
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