District Administration - February 2009 - (Page 43)

beneficiaries.) Thus, any employer that has decided to terminate a 403(b) plan must ascertain that, in fact, every account held in the plan has been properly distributed. Once assets have been distributed, each participant is eligible to roll over the values (companies must provide a direct rollover option for employees) to an Individual Retirement Account or to another workplace plan, if one exists. However, if all assets are not finally distributed, those employees who did elect to roll over their accounts without another qualifying event, such as attainment of age 59½ or severance of employment, will have an ineligible rollover (subject to taxes and potential penalty taxes), because the IRS will consider the plan not to have been successfully terminated. What is ahead in 2009 and beyond? Employers will want first to carefully deal with the important steps necessary to ensure a compliant 403(b) plan. Then they should plan to oversee the activities that the providers of annuity contracts and custodial accounts are engaged in to cooperate with the compliance. Even if the employer chose to use a third party administrator to handle the transactions necessary for compliance, it will be important to monitor their activities as well. While all of the employers’ oversight activities will become easier over time, there will be problems to be resolved. Additionally, employers should continuously communicate with their employees who have been impacted by the final regulations. The message from employer to employees should be that all of the changes necessary to comply are being accomplished to protect the tax status of all of the 403(b) accounts held under the plan. www.DistrictAdministration.com Read more about the history of 403(b), the relief it offers, and some failures to avoid. Eleanor Lowder is a master certified retirement specialist and author. She does not provide legal or tax advice, nor should anything in this article be used to avoid the payment of income taxes. She can be reached at elowder@ gainbroadband.com. www.DistrictAdministration.com Mark your calendar for these exclusive Leadership Series Web Seminars designed to help you run your district more effectively and efﬁciently. Ask questions and interact with leading experts. Web Seminars FREE ARCHIVED WEB SEMINARS Miss a live event? Want to see it again? View the archives from the past 12 months, including these recent events: RESPONSE TO INTERVENTION: Improving achievement for all children Originally aired: September 23, 2008 STREAMLINING YOUR COMMUNICATION: Collaboration with a uniﬁed solution Originally aired: October 14, 2008 SCHOOL WELLNESS POLICIES: Do you have one—and is it working? Originally aired: October 21, 2008 ® Nutrition for Health USA IMPROVING ACHIEVEMENT: Performance management solutions: the TIES experience Originally aired: November 12, 2008 Take Full Advantage of WEB SEMINARS Web Seminars These are FREE but you must pre-register! www.DistrictAdministration.com/webseminars February 2009 43 http://www.DistrictAdministration.com/webseminars http://www.DistrictAdministration.com http://www.DistrictAdministration.com/webseminars http://www.DistrictAdministration.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of District Administration - February 2009

District Administration - February 2009 Contents Advertiser Index Editor's Letter News Update Security Curriculum Crisis Response Supervisor's Opinion The Rise of the Virtual Teacher Speaking Their Language Alternate Transportation Routes Opinion The Aftermath of the New 403(b) Regulations How Well Does This Web Site Work? Problem Solution New Products Product Focus Professional Opinion

District Administration - February 2009

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.