November 11, 2002 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - AIM Management
Group announced plans to layoff 248 workers, or about 10% of
its staff, according to a company press release.
AIM said the reductions, the first in their 26 year
history, would come through a combination of voluntary and
involuntary separations.
The reason for the reduction was “the most severe and
prolonged market downturn in more than 60 years”, according
to the release.
The majority of those leaving were through voluntary
separation, no details to the program were offered.
October 23, 2001 (PLANSPONSOR.com) ? The Internal
Revenue Service (IRS) has issued proposed regulations
designed to assist plan sponsors with the implementation of
the new ?catch-up? contributions.
Those contributions were provided for under the
Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001
(EGTRRA) to allow workers aged 50 and above to set
aside funds for retirement above and beyond other plan and
regulatory limits ? if the plan has been amended to provide
for the contributions, and if the participant is otherwise
eligible to make contributions under the plan.
Beginning in 2002, employees age 50 and older,
including those who turn 50 before the end of the year,
are allowed to make additional “catch-up” elective
deferrals of up to $1,000 to 401(k), 403(b), SEP, SIMPLE,
or 457 plans. Those contributions are not subject to
limits such as those in Section 415, nor are they subject
to most nondiscrimination tests, including the average
deferral percentage test. They can be made even if the
individual has capped out on other contributory
limits.
An employer may match these catch-up
contributions-but those matching contributions will be
subject to the normal rules. However, none of this will
be possible until the plan document itself is amended to
allow for this new kind of contribution.
A Bit of Clarity
The proposed regulations attempt to address some of
the particular concerns associated with implementing the
new contributions.
For plan sponsors worried about how such
contributions will be designated, the regulations appear to
assume that catch-up contributions will be those made above
and beyond other limits ? those imposed by the plan itself,
statutory limits or the limits imposed by the application
of nondiscrimination tests, such as the ADP test.
That determination can be made after a plan has
conducted its nondiscrimination tests.
The regulations also acknowledge that those
determinations can be made as of the last day of the
relevant year for non-calendar year plans.
For purposes of the average deferral percentage (ADP)
test, catch-up contributions are ignored, with those
amounts subtracted from the participant?s elective
deferrals before calculating the deferral
percentage.