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FEDERAL TAXATION OF LOSAP

May 17, 2019

Benefits paid from a LOSAP are subject to federal income tax as of the date this blog post is being written. In general, any form of compensation is taxable in the year in which it is earned, unless the the Internal Revenue Code specifically exempts it. One of those exemptions are contributions into 401(k) –…

LOSAP & DIVORCE

May 16, 2019

Last time we discussed how LOSAP assets are assets of the sponsoring municipality. One ramification of this is when a participant goes through a divorce. Most people are aware of a Qualified Domestic Relations Order, or QDRO, where pension assets are divided. Many try and divide LOSAP assets in the same way. But since the…

LOSAP ASSETS ARE MUNICIPAL ASSETS

May 15, 2019

A key difference between a LOSAP and a qualified pension plan is that the LOSAP assets are municipal assets. They are not owned by the individual participants, nor are they protected from the general creditors of the municipality. We’ll explore in future posts how this key factor impacts several ways that a LOSAP is administered.

POINTS FOR ATTENDING FIRE DISTRICT MEETINGS

May 14, 2019

A commissioner cannot earn points for attending fire district meetings. This is because activities of the volunteer fire company/department are eligible for points. The same would go for the chief attending the monthly district meeting. The points for attending district meetings should be baked into the officer points that are awarded to the chief.

COULD HUMAN LIFESPAN EXCEED 100 YEARS?

May 13, 2019

An article which ran on CNBC.com on Wednesday May 8th had the following key points: You can read the entire article here: www.cnbc.com/2019/05/08/techs-next-big-disruption-could-be-delaying-death.html The intention of this article was to alert investors to an opportunity. If this becomes a reality, it isn’t just the stock prices of these companies that will be increasing, but the contributions…

CAN A LOSAP SPONSOR IMPOSE A ONE-YEAR WAITING PERIOD TO PARTICIPATE?

May 9, 2019

We discussed yesterday that all active volunteer firefighters are eligible to participate in a LOSAP in New York State. The next question is – is a waiting period before an eligible volunteer can begin participating? We believe the answer is no. We have reviewed many plans that will not allow a participant to participate in…

ELIGIBILITY TO PARTICIPATE

May 8, 2019

All active volunteer firefighters are eligible to participate in the LOSAP. Article 11-A defined an active volunteer firefighter as “a person who has been approved by the authorities in control of a duly organized volunteer fire company or volunteer fire department as an active volunteer firefighter of such fire company or department and who is…

CLASSIFYING DEPARTMENT RESPONSES

May 7, 2019

Yesterday we discussed how to determine if you should categorize department responses into fire or ambulance. The next question is, how do you determine if the call is an ambulance call or a fire call? There is no 100% correct answer – it is a case-by-case basis that must be determined locally. If the determining…

TRACKING AMBULANCE VS FIRE CALLS

May 6, 2019

In the New York State LOSAP Point System, the department responses category stipulates that calls should be broken into two categories – emergency rescue and first aid squad (ambulance) calls and “all other” calls. A question was raised about if calls be split into the categories, and if so, how. In this post, we’ll handle…

DB VS DC – ONE APPROACH

May 3, 2019

Recently, some questions have been raised about which plan is better – the DB or the DC plan. There are a lot of factors to consider when making this determination, and the assumptions you use play a major role. I’m going to look at one example. Let’s consider comparing a $20 DB plan and a…

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