Miscellaneous Parameters

The Miscellaneous Parameters button on Plan Definition Plan Attributes allows you to define some plan-specific information regarding benefit payments, dates & ages and extra calculation dates.

The Payments section specifies how often benefits are paid, their relative timing and rounding instructions:

Benefit payment frequency indicates how frequently annuity payments are made. The choices are annual, semi-annual, quarterly, monthly and continuous. This information is used to calculate payment form conversion factors. Benefit amounts are rounded to dollars and cents at this frequency before being adjusted to annual amounts.

Annuity payment timing indicates whether annuity benefits are paid at the beginning of period (an annuity-due) or the end of period (an annuity-immediate). This information is used to calculate payment form conversion factors.

If checked, the Round monthly benefits up for: checkbox indicates that the monthly benefits will be rounded up to the next cent for member & beneficiary, beneficiary only, or if it will be specified <by Coded Database Field>. If not checked, the default behavior of rounding the monthly benefit to the nearest cent will be applied. If you chose <by Coded Database Field>, the Params... button will request the Coded database field by which the rounding will be determined. Once the field has been selected, the spreadsheet below it will list each Database Code in the field with a multi-choice field for each that allows you to chose the Rounding monthly benefits up selection for that code. This option is useful, for example, when the plan consists of several locations and rounding treatment varies by location.

The Dates & Ages section controls certain date- and age-related calculations:

The Beginning of the middle of the month radio button specifies the assumed beginning of the second half of the month. Select either the 15th or the 16th. This parameter is used in salary and service calculations to control the range of semi-monthly measurement periods and the calculation of semi-month adjustments.

When calculating nearest age in months specifies whether ProAdmin should Assume 30 days per month (its standard assumption) or Use exact days in a month when calculating age nearest birthday. For example, if you choose exact days, the month of February will use 29 days instead of 30 in a leap year. Additional details about how ProAdmin calculates age are available in the Technical Reference article Age Calculations.

When checked, the Adjust commencement dates to the beginning of the month coincident or following checkbox sets all commencement dates to the beginning of the month coincident or following. For example, a commencement date of 4/1/2015 would remain 4/1/2015 and a commencement date of 4/2/2015 would be set to 5/1/2015.

When checked, the For end of month birthdates, grant a full month of age by month end checkbox indicates that the age of a participant or beneficiary with an end of month date of birth will be given credit for the month by the end of month. For example, if a birthdate is 01/31/1956 and the calculation date is 6/30/2013, the age determined would be 57y 5m (not 57y 5m -1d). Additionally, if a birthdate is 01/30/1956 and the calculation date is 6/28/2013, the age determined would be 57y 5m -2d (no adjustment is made).
When checked, the Calculated minimum required distribution age always 70 1/2 checkbox indicates that the provisions of the Secure Act and the Secure Act 2.0 to increase the minimum required distribution age after 12/31/2019 should be ignored. Therefore, age 70 1/2 will be used in the determination of minimum required distribution dates.

The Extra calculation dates (#DATE) section allows you to include calculation dates in addition to ProAdmin's default dates of every plan year end and every commencement date.

Checking the Include End of: checkbox allows you to include additional "standard dates". This may be useful for cash balance plans, to provide calculation detail to plan members. Choose Months to have all calculations done at the end of each month in the calculation period. Choose Bi-weeks, with an end of to have all calculations done at the end of each bi-weekly period. When selecting bi-weeks, a date field from the Data Dictionary must be specified to indicate one end-of-bi-week date from which all of the other end of bi-weeks will be determined.

Include dates associated with field: allows you to select any, presumably, date-dependent array date field from the Data Dictionary that specifies the extra dates to be included in the calculation. This might be useful to coerce such dates as a grandfathering date or plan acquisition date to insure that minimum benefits are protected.

Extend calculation dates through: allows you to select any scalar date field from the Data Dictionary to specify a date to be used to determine the last calculation date. This may be useful if you need the set of calculation dates to continue beyond the default (e.g., you might need to calculate someone's cash balance at NRD and then convert it into a benefit payable at each Benefit Commencement Date, but you need to show the year-by-year development of that cash balance).

Include dates associated with field: allows you to select any, presumably, date-dependent array date field from the Data Dictionary that specifies the extra dates to be included in the calculation. This might be useful to coerce such dates as a grandfathering date or plan acquisition date to insure that minimum benefits are protected.