403b Plans
The Department of Labor (DOL) should issue clarifying guidance on the proper treatment of distributed contracts and custodial accounts in the context of a 403(b) plan termination, the NTSA Government Affairs Committee recommended in a recent comment letter to the DOL’s Employee Benefit Security...
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Advisors working in the ERISA 403(b) marketplace often are asked to help plan sponsors meet their fiduciary duties under ERISA. In MarketBeat, Diane Capone provides some basics on the process an ERISA fiduciary plan sponsor needs to follow in order to comply with their obligations to the plan.
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(Editor’s Note: Members will be interested to know that NTSA GAC and ASPPA GAC are working their way through the proposed regulations, and will plan to comment as appropriate. Note that the regulations are issued in proposed form only, and, following the comment period, would be finalized. NTSA...
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Is there a difference between 403(b)(1) annuities and 403(b)(7) custodial accounts regarding withdrawal restrictions? In Tech Talk, Ellie Lowder explains how the rules work.
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One aspect of 403(b) plans that is not easily understood is the correction deadline for the actual contribution percentage (ACP) non-discrimination test. In this week’s MarketBeat, Farhad Mirzada provides an overview of the penalty-free and statutory deadlines for corrections for failed tests.
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Suppose a former employee of a school district wants to roll over her old 403(b) into her 403(b) at the school district where she now works, but the former employer says she cannot. In Tech Talk, Ellie Lowder tells us whether the former employer can do that.
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The IRS recently updated the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (EPCRS), a means to correct plan defects. In this week’s MarketBeat, Michael Webb examines the changes made to EPCRS and discusses their specific impact (or lack thereof) on 403(b)/457(b) plan sponsors.
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An employer that allows one employee to participate in its 403(b) plan must allow all employees to do so — that is, unless they fall into one of five types of employees who may be excluded. The IRS recently issued a reminder of the importance of following the Universal Availability Rule, and what...
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Can an employer transfer 403(b) transfer assets (including active loans) for active and terminated participants to a 401(k) without terminating the 403(b)? In this week’s Tech Talk, Ellie Lowder tells us.
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Suppose a client exchanged a 403(b)(7) custodial account into a 403(b)(1) annuity where the receiving provider applied pre-59½ withdrawal restrictions to the entire account value. Was that provider correct in that application, or should there be no restrictions? In this week’s Tech Talk, Ellie...
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Plan documents continue to demand advisors’ attention as we wait for the IRS to approve prototype and volume submitter plans sometime next year. In this week’s MarketBeat, Robert Toth discusses two particularly important plan document issues that advisors can help their 403(b) plan sponsors...
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A church client wonders if it needs to establish a 403(b)(9) retirement income account so the church board can designate post-retirement housing allowances as tax-free distributions. In this week’s Tech Talk, Ellie Lowder tells us if it does.
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Time draws short for required minimum distributions (RMDs) from traditional IRAs and employer-provided retirement plans to taxpayers who reached age 70½ in 2014. The IRS on March 19 in IR-2015-55 issued a reminder that the deadline is April 1. The April 1 deadline applies to owners of traditional...
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The IRS announced on March 11 that it has updated the information package containing sample plan provisions concerning pre-approved 403(b) plans. The update is first since March 2013.The IRS has made changes to the language that concerns the following terms and topics: compensation contribution...
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Some governmental plan sponsors, public school districts and public higher education organizations misinterpret how the federal income tax code applies to them. In this week’s MarketBeat, Michael Webb provides an overview regarding the sections of the tax code that do — and do not — apply to them.
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The IRS changed the 403(b) world with the regs it issued eight years ago, but Robert Toth says there still are circumstances with no easy solutions. In this week’s MarketBeat, he argues that addressing some of the more intractable daily 403(b) problems requires dealing with “small amounts” in...
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The IRS on Feb. 26 announced that it has updated user fees as well as the addresses to which applications for approval of pre-approved 403(b) plans are to be sent. The new information is contained in Revenue Procedure (Rev. Proc.) 2015-22.Rev. Proc. 2015-22 addresses omissions in previous guidance...
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Can 403(b) pay deferrals to a former employee be taken from the compensation he or she receives for unused leave? In this week’s Tech Talk, Ellie Lowder tells us that they can, but that there are conditions that must be met.
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The NTSA is very pleased to announce that our persistent effort to ensure that public school employees receive the same important retirement plan information provided to private sector retirement plan participants, including fees, expenses and compensations, has passed a significant milestone: On...
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If a client has a 403(b) account in which no contributions have been made since 2003, does it qualify as a grandfathered account? And can the client self-certify? In this week’s Tech Talk, Ellie Lowder gives us the answers, and also addresses what happens if the client breaks the self-certification...
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