401(k) plan excess rollover
401(k) plan administrator sent a portion of a rollover in error and is asking for the money back. The client has lost money in the account. Does the full amount need to be returned or the amount less the losses?
401(k) plan administrator sent a portion of a rollover in error and is asking for the money back. The client has lost money in the account. Does the full amount need to be returned or the amount less the losses?
Permalink Submitted by Alan - IRA critic on Wed, 2025-03-26 11:47
The employer may have other options to correct this, depending on the nature of the overpayment. Do you have any details on the overpayment itself?
Under the former rules, the gain or loss incurred in the IRA or other plan, would be calculated to determine the net amount returned, so the client would owe the reduced amount due to loss. But because the overpayment rules have recently changed, there may have been a solution other than recovering the overpayment. Of course, an overpayment can arise from several different violations, which is why it would be helpful to know the nature of the overpayment.
Permalink Submitted by Sten Lindquist on Wed, 2025-03-26 12:43
Letter from the plan administrator says “he received amounts he was not entitled to and should have never been credited to the account prior to distribution.”
Permalink Submitted by Alan - IRA critic on Wed, 2025-03-26 13:50
That’s not specific regarding the type of overpayment (eg non vested amounts). You might google IRS Notice 2024-77 for some background regarding recoupment of overpayments. A large part of this is whether the client understands and agrees that he was not entitled to these funds, wishes to ask for more detail, and or even resists the request without an explanation why the plan did not use other available methods than recoupment.
And if the entire distribution was rolled into an IRA, and he chooses to return the funds, it should be done by a direct rollover of the loss adjusted amount from the IRA. If he takes a distribution from the IRA he may get a 1099R showing taxable income due for the IRA distribution of amounts that he cannot keep.