Compliance and Operations — Articles

Choosing a Retirement Plan’s Definition of Compensation

Electing a plan’s definition of compensation may be one of the most important elections in any plan document. The elections made will significantly affect the plan’s design and its operations.

Mergers, Acquisitions, Dispositions, and Spinoffs can Affect a Plan’s Minimum Coverage Obligations and Testing

When a business is acquired or sold, the employer’s business structure may change (e.g., a sole proprietorship may become a corporation); the employer may join or leave a controlled or affiliated service group; or the employer may change for one or more individuals. Such business transactions could affect many aspects of the business’s qualified retirement plan.

Terminating ESAs at Age 30

One unique feature to a Coverdell Education Savings Account (ESA) is the requirement that the account terminates when the designated beneficiary reaches age 30. If you don’t stay on top of these accounts, you risk not reporting them correctly to the IRS and possibly losing contact with the designated beneficiary.

ESAAscensusFebruary 20, 2025Coverdell ESAs, Coverdell ESA, Compliance and Operations, Education

A Brush Up on EPCRS’s Self-Correction Program: Reviewing updates made to EPCRS following the passage of SECURE 2.0

Plan sponsors may generally correct eligible inadvertent failures under the EPCR’s Self-Correction Program. Exceptions to this rule include failures in which the plan or plan sponsor is under examination by the IRS or for failures that have been identified by the plan or plan sponsor but have not been corrected within a reasonable period of time after identification.

Is Your Organization on Track to Meet These IRA, HSA, and Coverdell ESA Deadlines?

It's a brand-new year filled with fresh reporting deadlines, and perhaps a good time to take note on whether your financial organization is on track to meet these obligations—or to refresh your memory on when specific deadlines occur. First quarter is always a busy reporting season.

IRA Reporting for the Year of Death

January is rapidly approaching and with it comes the deadline for fair market value (FMV) statements. One of the most challenging IRA reporting requirements is FMV statement reporting for the IRA owner’s year of death.

Challenges Can Arise With Service-Based Matching Formulas

Employers sometimes ask if they can reward their more tenured employees by providing them with a more generous matching formula than their less tenured counterparts.