Tracking Cash for a Retirement Account

The Merg

So, my wife has her retirement account set up and has automatic contributions from her paycheck. The issue is that it appears that her employer does not deposit those contributions on a set schedule, so while she has the deductions taken out on the 15th and last day of the month, the employer might hold off a few weeks before making a deposit. This means that when I view my balances in Quicken to what they are on the retirement website, the cash balance is usually off.

I am now at the point where I think her employer has missed making a deposit and am trying to reconcile that. I think the best way to do that would be to have the contributions from the paycheck go to a "cash" account and then when the retirement website shows a contribution to transfer from the "cash" account to the retirement account. This way I can definitely see that money being withdrawn is not actually getting into the retirement account.

Does anyone else have any thoughts or ideas on this?

Thanks,
Merg

volvogirl

Yes I agree.  set up a holding account for it.

The Merg

volvogirl said:

Yes I agree.  set up a holding account for it.

Okay, that's what I did. I created a new Investment account with no securities and changed all my past contributions for the retirement account to go into that account. I then did XOuts from that account to my retirement account based on the actual contributions to the retirement account.

As I expected, I still have a balance in my "cash" account even after the employer did a catch up with a one-time large contribution this past week.

Note: I created the holding account as an Investment account and not as a Cash account since Quicken will only allow you to choose Investment accounts when specifying pre-tax deductions for a retirement account. I didn't want to have to delete that entry and create a new entry on every paycheck. It was much easier just to pick a new Investment account.

Thanks,
Merg

NotACPA

Also, look into complaining to the Dept of Labor (or perhaps the Dept of Finance) in your state.

I'm not sure that such lengthy delays are legal.  A day  or 2, fine.  A week or so NOT FINE.

The Merg

NotACPA said:

Also, look into complaining to the Dept of Labor (or perhaps the Dept of Finance) in your state.

I'm not sure that such lengthy delays are legal.  A day  or 2, fine.  A week or so NOT FINE.

I've looked into it already. As a small employer, they do their contributions in batches where they submit the contributions to a processor and then the processor actually makes the contributions. As such, it can sometimes be a few weeks before a contribution posts and it also means that there is not necessarily a set date that they post. For example, in June, the posts were on 6/23 and 6/26.

- Merg

NotACPA

What state agency did you look to about this?  If you merely asked your employer, or their processor, OF COURSE, they're going to say that everything's OK.

I wouldn't believe them.

The Merg

NotACPA said:

What state agency did you look to about this?  If you merely asked your employer, or their processor, OF COURSE, they're going to say that everything's OK.

I wouldn't believe them.

I was initially told this by the employer and then spoke to my own personal Financial Advisor about this practice and he stated that it is normal. My advisor has no stake in any of the funds going into that account, so I would not see why he would not be honest about that.

And considering that he disagrees with advisor that handles the investment of the funds for that retirement account, I would think he would say something to me if there was truly an issue with it.

- Merg