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ERISA Stone

Some plans suspend your 401k contributions for a period of time if you take a loan (most don't). If this is important to you, be sure to check on it.

IMO, if you are going to spend the money regardless, you should consider a loan from a 401k plan to see if it is a better option for securing funds.

ERISA Stone

I am in the same boat. Our medical practice has an old grandfathered SARSEP-IRA, which if things continue as they are, we will outgrow the 25-person max in 1-3 years. I have been looking into other options. Safe Harbor401k is attractive for how much the partners can theoretically save pre-tax, but ...

ERISA Stone

... How difficult and expensive would it be for my wife and I to save more than $18,500 through profit sharing, especially since the majority of our employees do not currently contribute? You would have to contribute some money for your employees. However, a good actuary can design the plan so as t...

ERISA Stone

Me personally I would resent having to pay 0.08% of my investments but that's just me... We have a smaller law practice and do have a 401K + defined benefit plan but we also have absolutely no fees for the employees. We went with Vanguard/Ascensus, it's a bit pricier more like $3K for the 401K but ...

ERISA Stone

8foot7 wrote:
Hikes_With_Dogs wrote:Red flag in what way?

Is that a serious question?

My realtor has pushed me away from a house that I liked before. It doesn't have to be mutually exclusive that:

1. A realtor gives his/her clients solid advice; and
2. Realtors like to make money

ERISA Stone

Enjoy your Glenfiddich. Stop worrying about what everyone is telling you to do. If you feel content, don't let someone knock you out of your comfort level. Regardless of where home prices are headed, this is the best advice - thanks ERISA Stone. We just have to work on how to stop worrying about wh...

ERISA Stone

Enjoy your Glenfiddich. Stop worrying about what everyone is telling you to do. If you feel content, don't let someone knock you out of your comfort level.

ERISA Stone

No need to take it personally. Most people are NOT driven by optimizing their house-to-salary ratio. My wife is one of them. Several years ago, she gave me a 30 mile radius to find a house from a specific location. I chose a house 29 miles away. That later changed to one specific tiny zip code. Eve...

ERISA Stone

Jeez, these are people just trying to make a buck. It's not entirely their fault customers don't like them. For example, my local mailman, Fedex and UPS drive know I have small children and never ring the doorbell because of the potential naps. The Amazon Flex people ring, bang on the storm door a ...

ERISA Stone

Without knowing your market, if the seller paid $355k in 2012 and completely finished the basement (assuming 1000+ sqft), I don't think their price is unreasonable. Having said that, if you don't want to pay their price, I think you are being reasonable from your viewpoint either. Just don't expect ...

ERISA Stone

I should have no 10% penalty because I am over 59 1/2 and they took 20% out for taxes already. It appears that I can put up to $54,000 into my 403b in a single year, so my plan is to add much of the funds back this year. Vanguard said they would accept it as long as my plan agrees to send it. What ...

ERISA Stone

Thank you all very much. I understand it now. I think I did 4% by accident and will lower it to a 3% nonelective. If we activate the profit sharing I can kick it up to 5% To clarify, your obligation would be the 3% safe harbor nonelective contribution. If you choose to do a profit sharing contribut...

ERISA Stone

ETA: According to this article, 48% of employer plans allow after tax contributions. http://www.bankrate.com/investing/ira/after-tax-401k-rollover-to-roth-ira-okd/ I'm surprised that 48% of plans allow after-tax contributions. Although, since this came from Mercer, I assume they deal with much larg...

ERISA Stone

Your statement in bold is not correct. Employee deferrals must be deducted from compensation not already received. A W-2 employee can never make an employee deferral by writing a check. Thank you. I'm sorry. I have never done it myself, but I thought I had read posts of folks doing this. As far as ...

ERISA Stone

Andrews Federal Credit Union - 3.375% rate with 1 point https://www.andrewsfcu.org/personal/loa ... loans.html

ERISA Stone

gasdoc, I hadn't thought of that...how would that work and who should I speak with re. administration? I am 57 btw and intend to be in this job for 2-4 years, by which time we hope to have sold the company...maximizing tax shelter and creating some sort of annuity/pension are big objectives. ERISAs...

ERISA Stone

Woodshark wrote:I'm fairly sure that Aprilaire is humidifer, not a de-humidifer.

Here's an Aprilaire de-humidifier https://www.aprilaire.com/whole-house-p ... model-1830

ERISA Stone

Has anybody installed a "permanent" unit like Aprilaire? My $200 unit just quit on me after 4 years and I'm looking at alternatives.

ERISA Stone

Take a look at https://www.guideline.com/ -- have been using for my <5 person company. So far so good. $500 one-time setup. $40/month admin fee if <= 5 employees; otherwise $8/mo/employee. Uses Vanguard mutual funds underneath with no added expense ratio. I believe my blended ER is 0.06%, not inclu...

ERISA Stone

Employee Fiduciary appears to charge as follows: - One-time set up fee - $500 - Annual admin fees - $1,500 (for up to 30 employees) + 0.08% of plan assets I will call Vanguard later this week to see how their pricing compares, but I really appreciate the heads-up re. Employee Fiduciary...those fees...

ERISA Stone

in this day and age, I don't know why any firm would use an insurance company unless maybe they provide something unique? IMO they are really close to being a rip off in the 401k industry.

ERISA Stone

There is a primary benefit to doing the nonelective contribution over the match. If you have the new comparability profit sharing allocation formula (AKA cross-testing) and provide a profit sharing contribution, you have to pass the minimum gateway requirement. This requirement says each eligible NH...

ERISA Stone

Custodian could be different from recordkeeper. The custodian houses the assets. The recordkeeper maintains participant account balances by source and vesting. For example, Employee Fiduciary is my recordkeeper. I go to their website to see how much I have in my 401k and matching subaccounts. MG Tru...

ERISA Stone

It sounds like Savant is the investment advisor. There are several players involved in the 401k plan. The primary ones are: investment advisor - Savant custodian - Newport (maybe, although I didn't think they were in the custodial business) recordkeeper - Newport (likely) Some firms bundle the servi...

ERISA Stone

To clarify: I believe your employer means they will match 25% of your 401k contribution up to 6% of compensation. This design is a standard matching formula. There are several posts above with good examples. As far as vesting goes: the general definition of vested years of service (VYOS) is 1000 hou...

ERISA Stone

Can someone explain the difference between the 18k and the 54k limit? It has to do with MANDATORY contributions vs ELECTIVE (voluntary) contributions. From what I can tell, most companies are disinclined to have mandatory contributions, no idea why. University employers were more inclined to have g...

ERISA Stone

FWIW I was just researching Employee Fiduciary fee's, as I am looking into some plans for my small workplace, and they only charge a flat 0.08%. I assume it is possible to have the company pay this, or roll it into the funds (I wouldn't care either way honestly, as they have great Vanguard options)...

ERISA Stone

FWIW I was just researching Employee Fiduciary fee's, as I am looking into some plans for my small workplace, and they only charge a flat 0.08%. I assume it is possible to have the company pay this, or roll it into the funds (I wouldn't care either way honestly, as they have great Vanguard options)...

ERISA Stone

FWIW I was just researching Employee Fiduciary fee's, as I am looking into some plans for my small workplace, and they only charge a flat 0.08%. I assume it is possible to have the company pay this, or roll it into the funds (I wouldn't care either way honestly, as they have great Vanguard options)...

ERISA Stone

Not sure if this is a popular opinion or not, but I don't think you, as the spouse, should be doing any lobbying. You are not the employee. Any discussion with the school should come from the wife.

ERISA Stone

IceArdor But for readers who are not self employed and have company-matched retirement plans, read on. At my workplace, we were warned that the company match of 2/3rds up to 6% employee (4% match) is determined based on the employee's contribution from each pay period. If I ever have a paycheck whe...

ERISA Stone

Check your loan program for the 401k plan. A lot are written so that you either have to make the pre-arranged payment or pay the loan in full. There isn't always an option to pay down the loan if it's not in full.

ERISA Stone

If you aren't well-versed in these forms, I recommend doing a paper Form 5500-EZ. The SF has a few additional questions related to the compliance of the plan, and a wrong answer could inadvertently trigger an audit. Also, there is much more detail needed in the Financial Information section.

ERISA Stone

Thank you ERISA Stone,I am very grateful for your help! I will remember to use the same method each year. If anyone else had any problems with this method (IRS contacting you/penalties), I would appreciate hearing about it. msj16 I've either processed or reviewed more than a thousand 5500's and the...

ERISA Stone

According to Part III of the instructions of a Form 5500-EZ, you can use the cash basis method for completing the form. In my opinion, this means you can report the 2016 contribution that was contributed in 2017 in the 2017 calendar year for 5500 purposes. Therefore, you would not have met the $250k...

ERISA Stone

While I'm sure some exist, I can't recall ever seeing a 401k plan allowing for hardships for reasons other than the safe harbor reasons the IRS provide. It would create far too much liability on the employer to do otherwise. This would eliminate buying vacation homes and summer daycares. I was surpr...

ERISA Stone

dodecahedron wrote:
ERISA Stone wrote:
A deemed distribution of a loan wouldn't be classified as a hardship withdrawal.

Even if the reason the employee is unable to repay falls under one of the hardship definitions?

No, they're completely different types of distributions.

ERISA Stone

I agree home purchases make sense for some. Maybe to fund vacations in other cases? Kids going off to college in the fall? Home purchases certainly makes sense. College bills usually come due in two equal installments, late summer and early winter, so I don't think they explain much of the observed...

ERISA Stone

This post on a third party site on UBTI in 401Ks may be helpful: http://www.irafinancialgroup.com/the-solo-401k-and-the-ubit-rules.php TL;DR - looks like UBTI in 401Ks isn't a problem from my read, but maybe check accuracy and current-ness of information Interesting. I'm surprised no one from benef...

ERISA Stone

Just in case anyone was looking to refinance. I don't know if they write mortgages in every state but they do mortgages in Georgia, at least.

https://www.andrewsfcu.org/personal/loa ... loans.html

ERISA Stone

A lot of plans don't allow this. I would check to confirm yours does.

ERISA Stone

even though it only feels like it's punishing the HCE's. It is. The intent is to encourage the company offer a less crappy plan so that more non-HCEs will participate. Unfortunately, many companies seem to be unconcerned with being told their plan is crappy. If you didn't have nondiscrimination tes...

ERISA Stone

Along with the vesting schedule, you should also be able to read about how a vested year of service (VYOS) is determined. The standard definition is 1000 hours in a calendar year. So it's possible you could be 100% vested after 2 years of actual employment. Again, this depends on the definition of a...

ERISA Stone

It is true that you do not pay tax on the funds withdrawn when you take the loan from the 401k. However, to the extent of the "interest paid" on the 401K loan, you are using already taxed funds from your paycheck and putting that in your 401K plan. In the future when funds are withdrawn f...

ERISA Stone

Does your employer have access to these answers? That's the part of this that would bother me.

ERISA Stone

To add, TFB also said this about the interest payments in the comments section: The interest you pay into the plan is replacing the interest the plan account otherwise would earn from the financial market. If you get a loan from a bank, you are also taxed twice: once on the income earned to pay inte...

ERISA Stone

You'll also have the "double tax" issue (taxed now as income on the money used to repay it and taxed on it later as ordinary income again). So you'll pay income taxes on that $50k now, and then after you repay it, you'll pay income taxes on it again later. That's a steep penalty imo. It's...

ERISA Stone

I should say the interest is paid back with post tax funds. However that is not true regarding the principal. You are simply replacing pre tax dollars with the same pre tax dollars you took out. You are just moving money around.

I encourage you to look at the links from finance buffs link.

ERISA Stone

Do you pay taxes on the money used to repay a 401k loan when you repay it? Yes. No. The funds used to pay the 401k loan are based on the 401k proceeds from the loan. How you choose to allocate those funds once you take the loan is up to you. Example: You take a $50k loan from the 401k. You decide y...

ERISA Stone

You'll also have the "double tax" issue (taxed now as income on the money used to repay it and taxed on it later as ordinary income again). So you'll pay income taxes on that $50k now, and then after you repay it, you'll pay income taxes on it again later. That's a steep penalty imo. It's...

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