From the Executive Editor

Hi there. March 14 and another submission deadline is looming. What was I thinking when I chose the 15th of each month as a submission date for the monthly content for our e-news? You’d think that after 35 years in this business I’d have realized what a bad choice that was! 

 

In our February edition I briefly discussed the proposed changes to the 401(a)(4) regulations that had just been issued. These have, of course, created a big stir. I asked Tom Finnegan to give us a detailed write-up of the change and to explain how it would affect testing for our clients. Tom’s article on this is here.

 

I also asked our Executive Director Judy Miller to follow up her February article about the 401(a)(4) proposed regulations with another article providing an update of what ACOPA/ASPPA has been doing to respond to the regulations. Please see Judy’s request for information from all of us to help make the case to the IRS about how harmful the proposed change would be to our small clients. Judy’s article is here and provides the details of the information ACOPA needs to gather from you.

 

As I mention in every edition, the ACOPA listserv is an invaluable resource. Matt Beaurain is a young actuary with his own business, and I noticed that Matt participates on the listserv, so I asked him to write an article about how he uses the listserv and how it helps him in his practice. Matt’s excellent article is here. If you are a member of ACOPA and don’t participate on the listserv, you are really missing out and I urge you to “be like Matt!”

 

One listserv discussion which often comes up is the question, “What is a valid plan document?” James Turpin often contributes to that discussion, so of course I asked him to write an article about this. James’ submission is here.

 

I gave ACOPA President Karen Smith a free pass for this month on updating us on what our leadership is working on. I think we can safely assume they are still busy representing our best interests even though we don’t have an update from Karen this month.

 

Okay, onward to April 15 — keep calm and meet your deadlines.

 

Cheers,

 

Norm