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When is a 401(k) Not a Retirement Plan?                 

Short answer – a 401(k) plan is not a “retirement plan” for California creditor protection purposes when it was expressly set up to protect IRA rollover assets from creditors. This was the holding in a 2019 California Court of Appeal decision that is still valid law and that is worth revisiting: O’Brien v. AMBS Diagnostics, LLC, 38 Cal. App. 5th 553, 562 (2019), rev. den. 2019 Cal. LEXIS 8003 (October 23, 2019) Mr. O’Brien got into a legal dispute with his former business partners in AMBS Diagnostics, LLC (AMBS) and lost at trial,…

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IRS Announces 2022 Retirement Plan Limits

On November 4, 2021, the IRS announced 2022 cost-of-living adjustments for annual contribution and other dollar limits affecting 401(k) and other retirement plans.  The maximum annual limit on salary deferral contributions to 401(k), 403(b), and 457(b) plans increased $1,000 to $20,500, but the catch-up contribution limit for employees aged 50 and older stayed the same at $6,500.  That raises the total deferral limit for a participant aged 50 or older to $27,000.  The Section 415(c) dollar limit for annual additions to a retirement account was increased to $61,000 from $58,000, and the $6,500…

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Scary Surprise for Some New 401(k) Sponsors: Plan Audit Costs

Imagine you are a California business owner, with three fast-casual restaurant operations throughout the state. You employ over 100 employees, such that by September 30, 2020, you were either required to have a retirement plan in place, or to begin to participate in the CalSavers program by forwarding employee contributions to Roth IRAs managed by a state-appointed custodian. Your decisions about whether to adopt your own retirement plan were made in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic when business operations, cash flow, and staffing needs were chaotic and fast-changing. On balance, however,…

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“I am a benefits (ERISA) attorney. I help businesses prevent, and fix, problems with their employee benefit plans in order to preserve the tax-qualified status of those plans, and ultimately the saleability of their businesses.”

-Christine P. Roberts

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Christine P. Roberts
Mullen & Henzell L.L.P.
phone: (805) 966-1501
email: croberts@mullenlaw.com

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Recent Posts

When is a 401(k) Not a Retirement Plan?                 

Short answer – a 401(k) plan is not a “retirement plan” for California creditor protection purposes when it was expressly set up to protect IRA rollover assets from creditors. This was the holding in a 2019 California Court of Appeal decision that is still valid law and that is worth revisiting: O’Brien v. AMBS Diagnostics, LLC, 38 Cal. App. 5th 553, 562 (2019), rev. den. 2019 Cal. LEXIS 8003 (October 23, 2019) Mr. O’Brien got into a legal dispute with his former business partners in AMBS Diagnostics, LLC (AMBS) and lost at trial,…

Continue reading → When is a 401(k) Not a Retirement Plan?                 

IRS Announces 2022 Retirement Plan Limits

On November 4, 2021, the IRS announced 2022 cost-of-living adjustments for annual contribution and other dollar limits affecting 401(k) and other retirement plans.  The maximum annual limit on salary deferral contributions to 401(k), 403(b), and 457(b) plans increased $1,000 to $20,500, but the catch-up contribution limit for employees aged 50 and older stayed the same at $6,500.  That raises the total deferral limit for a participant aged 50 or older to $27,000.  The Section 415(c) dollar limit for annual additions to a retirement account was increased to $61,000 from $58,000, and the $6,500…

Continue reading → IRS Announces 2022 Retirement Plan Limits

Scary Surprise for Some New 401(k) Sponsors: Plan Audit Costs

Imagine you are a California business owner, with three fast-casual restaurant operations throughout the state. You employ over 100 employees, such that by September 30, 2020, you were either required to have a retirement plan in place, or to begin to participate in the CalSavers program by forwarding employee contributions to Roth IRAs managed by a state-appointed custodian. Your decisions about whether to adopt your own retirement plan were made in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic when business operations, cash flow, and staffing needs were chaotic and fast-changing. On balance, however,…

Continue reading → Scary Surprise for Some New 401(k) Sponsors: Plan Audit Costs

IRS Prioritizes Guidance on Student Loan Repayment Contributions

On September 9, 2021 the Department of the Treasury issued its 2021-2022 Priority Guidance Plan listing guidance projects that are priorities for the Treasury Department and IRS during the twelve months ending June 30, 2022.  Among the Employee Benefits topics is “[g]uidance on student loan payments and qualified retirement plans and §403(b) plans.” This post reviews the state of the law on student loan repayments through retirement plans and briefly discusses what type of guidance might be forthcoming.  Current State of the Law The current state of guidance on using student loan repayments…

Continue reading → IRS Prioritizes Guidance on Student Loan Repayment Contributions

Summertime Blues for Your 401(k) Plan, Pt 3

The third in our series of posts on common plan errors that are discovered when plan audits are underway each summer, is the failure to timely deposit plan assets consisting of employee elective deferrals and loan repayments. Unlike the operational errors we discussed in the prior two posts, which are corrected under the IRS Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System or EPCRS, this particular error of late deposits is corrected under a Department of Labor program called the Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program or VFCP. There is an IRS piece that must be attended to,…

Continue reading → Summertime Blues for Your 401(k) Plan, Pt 3

IRS Plays Musical Chairs With Voluntary Correction Programs

Section 401(k) and other retirement plans are notoriously complicated to operate and no plan sponsor gets it 100% correct, 100% of the time. When problems arise, plan sponsors may correct certain errors – technically “failures” — under an IRS program called the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System, or EPCRS. Failures corrected this way cannot later be the basis for revoking the tax-qualified status of the plan, or imposing other tax penalties or interest. EPCRS is set forth in a Revenue Procedure that the IRS updates every few years. On July 16, 2021 the…

Continue reading → IRS Plays Musical Chairs With Voluntary Correction Programs