FAQ 960: How to set up a MEP (multiple employer plan) or PEP (pooled employer plan) on ASC?

Problem: How to set up a MEP (multiple employer plan) or PEP (pooled employer plan) on ASC? Is it better to set it up in one case with multiple locations, or set each employer up in their own case?

Solution: Clients run these plans either as separate cases on ASC or as one case on ASC with Multiple locations. How these are set up depends on how big the groups are and what functions the user needs to perform. 1) All in one case - functions performed "by Location" Traditionally users performed compliance testing only on ASC, but recordkeeping can be performed with employee's with multiple accounts if there is a uniform set of investment funds. This is accomplished by using ASC's "Location Setup" option, which is available for all compliance tests, valuation reports, as well as matching calculations. These users have the same eligibility, vesting and allocation provisions for all employers - so their data is imported and maintained on one ASC case. In some instances, the eligibility might be different among employers (e.g. 3 elig choices among the 40 employers). This can still be done in one case in the individual Locations were an Eligibility table can be created in Table Maintenance and coded to the Location. The system will also handle PS and Forfeiture allocations by location, in addition to Vesting by location. The single case will allow for an employee to have more than one account. Employee's with multiple accounts will be coded to a specific location. The system recognizes the multiple account by the employee's social security number. To indicate to the system that the case contains employees with more than one account or they are in multiple locations, the user will code in the Identification - ID screen in the Plan Specification the option “Mult. EE Locations” as 'Yes'. The Mult. EE Locations 'Yes' coding will allow users to import multiple employee records using Ascript - Import. The import file must include Location number of the employee. During the "Specify Index and records to be added" step of the import wizard, select "Use Location" and then select the Location name from the "Field Name" listing. 2) Each employer in a separate case - functions performed completely separate either by the user or via our scripting automation These groups generally have Compliance Testing by Employer *plus* separate eligibility, allocation, and/or vesting provisions by Employer. These users not only must run compliance testing separately; they must also run allocations, eligibility and vesting separately. If this is required, each employer must be maintained on a separate ASC case. To do this the most efficiently, users perform the following steps with our automated products. These products are additional costs, so for a 40-employer group, users may not want to buy them. If your MEP has 2000-3000 employers, it is worth it. • Use ASC's Money Manager Link (MML) product to set up each individual case and import the employee data to these cases. MML requires a specific file format for its import, which ASC can help you create. • Use ASC's Single Step Processing (SSP) product to run the plan functions unattended. For example, a SSP wizard can be written that will open each plan, run calculations and print compliance tests, saving the results to a pdf file. Another issue to consider is how the census data would be delivered at year end. If it is all in one big file, we can write a conversion program that can change that file to an MML format file and allow it to be imported to separate ASC cases. If it all comes in in separate data files, then you could do the standard ASCript import one at a time, or we could write you a wizard that would go across multiple plans (or a single plan) - and bring in the data.