5500 forms

[Nashville]

Just want to take a straw poll from board members who wish to respond.

I sometimes have a problem with corporate clients who give me their Form 5500s to fill out for their 401k and s. 125 plans. They think since it is an IRS form, then I'm supposed to handle it for them. I meet this the golden opportunity for more revenue with a thumbs down and refuse to do them. Partly because the penalties are so high, but also because most of the information is held by the plan trustee. My position is that the plan trustee should fill them out, but when approached, most of them say "This plan is self-directed by the client", therefore they don't wish to prepare them. [Funny thing, all the IMPORTANT features of the plan are NOT self-directed - rates, applications, qualifiers, parameters, etc.]

So a straw poll:

Ÿ I prepare Forms 5500 for my clients.
Ÿ I refuse to prepare Forms 5500.
Ÿ I take no position on the matter.

[Jiggers]

5500 Forms

I refuse all 5500. They have gotten too complicated and the penalties are too high.

[DaveO]

I have done one,

but told the client that it's the responsibility of the plan trustee to complete. When the Trustee's agent balked the client changed trustee's. New trustee completes Form 5500, problem solved.

This was a new, high value, client we really wanted to keep happy.

[Lion]

Trustee

I have sent them to the plan trustees. Don't Dept. of Labor requirements come into play? Hard enough to keep up with changing IRS and state tax laws, now there's DOL and ERISA and such. I tell clients they can pay me to deal with those agencies or go to their plan trustee who's already getting fees from them.

[geekgirldany]

I have one customer that I was filling the forms out. Probably about 3 years. The accountant he left had been doing them and had also setup the plan. Of course everything was self administrator. I continued to fill out the form until this year. Problems came up. Not with the filing of the form but with the plan setup. I posted about it on the forum. Told the customer I wasn't going to tell him to do something that I was not sure about. To go back to the accountant that originally set up the plan and ask her. I told him I could not take the liability of it being wrong.

I am not taking the responsibility of being a plan administrator for anyone else.