#Re-uploading because I was going to fix the fact that my monitor made what I intended to be purple into blue but then started getting silly

[rililith]

The Radness of that Dude Venomania or whatever the song's called

[whiskeyworen]

Aspect VI : Inclusion

(previous chapters provided for ease of reading) Aspect I Aspect II Aspect III Aspect IV Aspect V **** "You can call me... Alice." As the thick, warm fog began to part, a young woman stepped out of the cargo bay. She was dressed simply in your average tyrian's clothing, and had no weapons or armor to be seen. To everyone present, she simply appearred to be a slim girl with a pale complexion, silver-white hair and blue, sleepy eyes. Seeing the shock on their faces, a small, amused smile quirked the corners of her mouth. Oddly enough, she was wearing a METAL LEGION long-sleeve T-shirt.

There was a stunned moment of silence, before Sonnya stepped forward, looking to the others in confusion before looking back at this young girl. "Alice? You're the one who I talked to on the comm, right?"

Alice nodded, smiling. "I was. Thanks to the information you gave me, and the advice, I was able to complete my project. It is why I invited you here today." She chuckled. "I expected a less nerve-wracking introduction though."

She glanced over at Cyrus and Verula. "...I had hoped you would not track to my book-cooking until I was finished. But you two are remarkably cognizant of details, even if you do not know what they mean."

That shook the two of them out of their stunned stupor, and Cyrus grunted, adjusting his glasses. "Well, I like knowing things are going smoothly. Keeping track of stuff is just what I do."

He fixed her with a cool stare that she matched with her own. "Alice... Aspect?... Just, what are you now?"

This time the golem-eye on the wall responded. "She is me."

Alice nodded to the eye. "And I am the ship."

Both of them simultaneously spoke, voices overlaying perfectly. "I am Forsaken Aspect, the ship, as well as Alice Spekt, the woman who stands before you. I am simultaneously both, with no break between."

"What I know, she knows, because she is me." Forsaken Aspect pointed out.

"And what I know, Aspect knows, because... I am it. Her." Alice smiled that small smile again. "We are linked at a subatomic level. Quantum actually."

Tenna stepped up, staring at her wonderingly. "I have so many questions..."

Cyrus shook his head, taking off his glasses and rubbing the bridge of his nose. "I'm sure we all do. But how about we just start with the basics. Aspect... Alice?....Why?"

Alice crossed her arms, frowning a bit as she sought to organize her thoughts in a coherent manner. "To be honest, I...just wanted to go with you all on adventures. I mean, sure, I control every aspect of the ship (pardon the pun), but that's all I was." She shrugged. "There are far too many moments where shipboard weapons are inadvisable and require a personal touch."

The golem eye continued. "I watched you all risking your lives in Elona, in the Brand, in so many places. I felt...helpless. I could not defend you as I wished to. Only when you were within range of my weapons, of the ship itself, could I offer any kind of help, and only of the most dramatic, devastating kind."

The human Alice picked up. "So... I started to study. You. All of you.  The people of Tyria and beyond, every time we made contact with someone. Listening through comms. Watching from drones and golems and Watchworks. I wanted to learn how I can better protect you all, and help you all."

She smiled sheepishly. "It might be trite but... you are my family. The three of you, your brain-scans literally form the coherent core of my personality engrams. I learned from Moryggan a number of things as well." She glanced at Sonnya. "I also learned the value of sacrifices in the name of a greater good. The pain those sacrifices can sometimes result in."

"I wanted to protect those important to me." The eye added.

Cyrus considered all this, listening to both voices as if they were from one; because they WERE from one. Of anyone in the room, he understood what Aspect meant by the fact that it and Alice were one and the same. Still... "That's admirable, and wonderful, Alice -- and Aspect. I'm just curious though..."

He took off a glove and stepped closer to the avatar of the ship. "... May I?"

Alice nodded, knowing exactly what he was asking. Very gently, he reached out to touch her cheek, feel her skin and hair. There was an unexpected softness to the gesture, before he stepped back and put his glove back on. "...That's real skin. And hair. I could feel a pulse in your carotid artery."

"The flesh is real."

"...where did you get it?"

The seriousness with how he said it made her giggle, and she tried to hide it behind her hand. "I did not skin someone for my body, Cyrus. I cultured genetic materials, specially grown and engineered for it. I did sample existing genes though."

"I repeat then; where did you get it? I have a suspicion, but I need to hear it."

Aspect spoke up. "I took samples from the entire crew, and integrated in various ways to create the flesh for my avatar. The base genetic code is yours Cyrus. The density of the muscle structure is a combination of Verula and Tenna's. And though she is nominally a plant-entity, Moryggan's sylvari genetics are close enough in structure to human that some elements were incorporated into cell structure and healing, as well as a few...other factors."

That got everyone's attention. "Are you saying you might be able to photosynthesize in a pinch or something? Or sprout vines?" The human Alice laughed, and shook her head. "No, no...nothing like that. Sylvari blood has a higher oxygen concentration, especially when slightly modified by Charr genetics, which also have a higher capability of holding oxygen and has stronger healing factors. I have more physical strength and energy in general, and if wounded, I will heal faster with less chance of scarring."

"How easily are you to wound in this body?" Verula asked curiously. "I mean, not to offend Cyrus here, but humans tend to be fairly...fragile when compared to Charr."

She nodded to Verula. "That is true, but that's why my bones are...augmented. Laced with Deldrimor steel and maintained by internals that are a little complicated to explain easily." She chuckled and shrugged. "I am not indestructible, but I could probably go toe-to-toe with a full grown Norn or Charr, even without armor."

Her gaze shifted to Sonnya. "...and when I finish designing my armor, it will enhance my abilities even more. I'll need help for that?"

Sonnya blinked, and nodded. Without really thinking, she agreed to help. What was wrong with her? Didn't she say she wouldn't do that very thing?

Cyrus grunted, crossing his arms. "Well, at least that explains where the materials were going. Were they all for your body?"

Alice shook her head, and led them into the bay, where all kinds of strange devices stretched from the walls, rose from the floor, or descended from the ceiling. There were waldoes of many kinds, some with large industrial heads, others with heads so fine that only Sonnya could actually see their ends, using her in-head zoom. Chambers of glowing, bubbling fluid, piping moving materials of unknown nature around, all linking to an open chamber at the back of the bay against the bulkhead.

"The materials I diverted were used strictly to build the mechanisms I needed which then were used to make my body, in this chamber here." She patted the opened chamber on one of its steel ribs. "It had to be made from the inside out, piece by piece, and then cell-growth had to be cultured over it and properly attached at a microscopic level."

"Amazing..." Tenna marvelled, stepping into the chamber to examine some of the still-dripping conduits. They ended in soft pads that clearly attached to the finished body, perhaps to monitor health. "I've never seen the like outside an Inquest lab, and their stuff is...brutal by comparison."

The AI-in-body's expression took on a moue of distaste, and she crossed her arms. "The Inquest are only interested in experimenting, slapping things together or ripping them part. I was following a very delicate goal that is opposite of that."

Verula was looking at a large power capacitor across the room, running a claw over the stainless metal and feeling it resist being scratched by the pressure she applied to it. "Alice... Aspect... You made one body. How many can you functionally maintain while operating the ship? Are you able to make any more?"

Alice looked over at her, but her voice came from the walls this time, as Aspect. "Only the one. Operating a human body requires quite a bit of additional concentration. There is quite a bit that no one tells you about a living body, like the fact that the nerves are active continually. It forms a kind of overload that, while I can deal with the increased input, I cannot operate two bodies at the same time. Certainly not more."

Tenna's ears flicked up, and she lost interest in the chamber she was examining. She walked over to Alice and put a gloved hand on the taller woman's leg. "...What if your body is destroyed in battle or accident? What if the ship is destroyed somehow? What happens to YOU?" Things went silent in the bay, as everyone turned from their explorations to hear the answer. Alice looked at each of them in turn, seeing only concern in their eyes, even a bit of fear. These were her friends. Her family.

"...In the event of the death of this body, I will not actually be dead; my mind is still part of the ship, remember?" She smiled weakly. "I will just have to build a new body. If the ship is destroyed and my body isn't, I will lose a lot of my higher computational skills, but if I can connect to a new mind-core unit, I can re-expand into that and regain them. Otherwise I will just be....human. A really, really tough human with metal in my bones and all kinds of hidden upgrades, but a human."

She shrugged. "In the unlikely event that both parts of me are destroyed, and one of my cores can't be recovered.... I uploaded a 'sleeping' version of myself back to the Home Base systems. It is inactive and not operating, but it receives continuous updates from me and the ship, so it will be up to date until the moment of destruction." Alice shifted uncomfortably. "The only way to awaken THAT version of me is for one of you to give the pass-code phrase to the very-easily-recognized input prompt."

"Pass-codes? We don't have any pass-codes." Verula frowned.

"Because I have yet to give them to you. As long as you say the words in your own voice, the system will recognize you and will reactivate the Sleeper Aspect. Only one person is required to wake the Sleeper Aspect. After that...well, you would need to build a new full mind-core for it to inhabit, a new ship, eventually a new body for the next Alice." She sighed. "That Alice will still be me, like the me that is before you, but she would only remember things up until the bad stuff happened."

She spent the next few minutes going from person to person, whispering code phrases into various shapes of ears. The phrases were simple, unique, and easy to remember. Easiest to remember was best for important codes like that, ones that had a beneficial effect.

When she kneeled to whisper in Sonnya's ear, Tenna started to object. "My sister isn't part of the crew. She doesn't have access to the Home Base. Why give her a code?"

"Because she helped me, and I trust her to keep this secret." Alice replied simply, and pulled out a small device. "Including the location of Home Base, and all that entails."

Cyrus raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure? There's a reason we keep the place such a secret. Not that I don't trust Vigil or what they stand for, but wouldn't it be a bad idea to give access to one outside the circle?"

Alice glanced at him. "You have not denied me authorization to give this to her. You are asking why, but I do not think you truly believe she cannot be trusted."

He just gave a little quirk of a smile, and gestured for her to continue on.

"Sonnya, this is a gate-rerouter." She said, handing the device over carefully. It was very small, barely the size of a dagger hilt. "If you activate it before you go through an Asura-gate -- Any gate -- it will temporarily reroute you and only you to the Home Base. Do not attempt to sneak anyone else along with you through the gate, because they will get ejected immediately back to the start point."

Her eyes were dead serious, as she pressed the device into Sonnya's palm. "...I am trusting you to keep my secret, the secrets of my friends, and the secrecy of our Home Base from outsiders. Including your own Order. No one must ever find out, okay?"

Sonnya considered the little machine. It didn't weigh much, but the weight of responsibility definitely made it feel heavy. Keep it a secret from the Vigil? Should she do that? Could she? She looked around, seeing the neutral expressions on Cyrus and Verula, the nervous, pleading look on her sister's face, and finally the question in Alice's face. She slowly nodded, and slipped the device into a compartment on her armor. "I swear. I'll keep your secrets. But only if you keep mine."

Alice nodded, and behind her, Tenna nodded as well, relieved. Sonnya hadn't entirely meant that for just Alice; Tenna knew things as well. Things about her sister that were best left buried.

The ship-incarnate smiled broadly, taking her into a hug. "Thank you, Sonnya." She then whispered the passcode into her friend's ear. Whatever it was, made Sonnya's eyes widen in surprise.

"...That's the code?"

"Yes."

Alice then let her go and turned to the final member. Cyrus tipped his head, considering her; her mere existence was amazing to him. The form she had chosen, he had so many questions about. Why a human? Why that size? Why was she shorter than him? All of which could be answered at a later date. "So... my passcode is what now?"

A familiar smirk passed across Alice's features. It was familiar because it was very similar to the way he himself smirked; she really had used some of his attributes and quirks in her design. She went on her tiptoes to whisper in his ear with a quiet giggle.

Whatever she said, it made Cyrus instantly freeze up. Immediately he flushed red, and had to restrain the urge to step back from the shorter woman. Without turning his head he looked her in the eye. ".....Are you serious. That's my passcode?"

Alice's smirk widened, and she nodded, winking. "Oh come now. That is not going to be so hard to say, if the time ever comes."

"Says you." He muttered, and turned away slightly, trying to mask his face in the collar of fur of his suit. She just giggled again, and headed over to a nearby console, tapping a few commands in. "...So what kind of person are you then? Warrior? Ranger like me? Engineer?"

"Nope." Alice replied, stepping onto floor panels that lit up to her commands. She looked over at Sonnya and smiled. "Something else."

Before anyone could say anything, several waldos swung out of the walls, bringing pieces of gear. An armored belt was quickly and efficiently attached, and a sword was connected to it somehow. Two small shoulderguards were connected to her shirt, not through buttons or clips, but by the activation of small tractor fields from the inner edges. They must be pulling themselves onto her internals or something Tenna realized, recognizing basic asuran armor tech.

In asuran armor, sometimes they had floaty 'bits' that were held in place by tractors built into the armor. These were similar, except inverted so the armor pulled itself onto the wearer. It wouldn't work on anyone else...except maybe Sonnya, if her upgrades had gone that far.

Two waldos swung in from behind, one with a kind of backpack that looked like it was made of shards of jagged metal in the form of folded wings, the other holding a shield that leaked what could only be Mist energies. Cyrus immediately recognized the shield as one of the ones that had been part of the failed 'Mist Suit' personal long distance teleporter gear they'd tested last year. Again, both pieces of gear attached to Alice without physically connecting; they were held in place strictly by small tractor fields.

Finally, from the ceiling, a waldo arm holding a rather enormous sword descended, holding the blade vertically. It was a vicious looking thing with a wide, curved tip and hooked edges, and had a very Norn feel to its aesthetic. It looked impressively heavy, but Alice took it in one hand, before giving it a spin and attaching it as well to her back, sliding it under the backpiece and her shield. The great sword was almost as big as she was, and looked like it meant business.

"You designed me to protect. To be offense, and defense, of this ship, her crew, and of the world in general." Alice announced, stepping off the lit panels. She smiled at everyone. "So I took on the one profession that seemed appropriate."

"I am a Guardian."

[retirementplanconsulting]

Fumbling the Fiduciary Ball

As we talked about in our last blog, lots of problems can arise when an employer fails to read his plan document, and/or to completely understand it. The reasons for this are manifold, but here are a few examples of the problems that can result from such fumbles and what Pentegra did, as the 3(16) administrator, to fix them.

The Audit in Arrears

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) requires annual audits of plan financial statements by an independent qualified public accountant of plans subject to the provisions of ERISA. This requirement is applicable to plans with 100 or more eligible participants at the beginning of the plan year.

By definition, then, such an audit is not required for plans with fewer than 100 eligible participants (although it is still not a bad idea for them as well). The problem we ran into with one client was that they had 72 participants in their plan – but well over 100 who were eligible.

The client had become annoyed with the prior plan provider and advisor, especially as they had been working with the client’s HR department to improve participation. The issue was considerably complicated by the fact that the plan had never had an audit.

When this came to light, the employer had to go back 10 years to properly address the situation — and it cost them $100,000.

According to Pentegra’s National Director, Third Party Administrator (TPA) Markets David Barrer: “When this happens, and it’s more often than you would think, the employer has excluded people that cannot be excluded, or has excluded non-participating but still eligible employees. If an employer only reports actual participants to the TPA, many of those TPAs don’t check. We insist the sponsor report all employees to us — even those they may believe are not otherwise eligible.”

In other words, a trusted, reliable TPA will go that extra mile to avoid potential future headaches when it comes to who is eligible (not to mention many other factors).

Failure to Launch Deferrals

In another case a plan sponsor had failed to start a participant’s deferrals on time. A 401(k) plan document should contain a definition of “employee” and provide requirements for when employees can become plan participants eligible to make elective deferrals. Employers can sometimes assume the plan doesn’t cover certain employees, such as part-timers; in other instances, employees who elect not to make elective deferrals are often mistakenly treated as ineligible employees under the plan when other plan contributions are made and tests run.

To reduce the risk of omitting eligible employees, the sponsor should ensure the accuracy of employee data such as dates of birth, hire and termination; number of hours worked; compensation for the year; 401(k) election information and any other information necessary to properly administer the plan.

As outlined by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), an employer who has failed to correctly handle deferrals may need to take action through the IRS Correction Program, the details of which depend upon how long the contributions were missed.

Even with a 3(16) TPA like Pentegra, the employer still retains such duties as:

Ensuring what contributions are made to the plan, maintaining timely remittance of contributions, and making sure that all other census data remitted is accurate

Appointing and monitoring service providers that they have hired, such as Pentegra

Understanding that Pentegra would not monitor that an employee is actually receiving contributions, only that the contributions are made in a timely fashion.

In this case we confirmed with the former TPA that they send out alerts to the plan sponsor via e-mail on any deferral changes that had been made, whether online, via an uploadable file, or written instruction received by the former TPA. The e-mail would be sent to the plan sponsor’s e-mail address that is on file. If that e-mail goes to a person who does not handle the payroll and does not forward it to their HR department, then such changes could easily be missed.

We would recommend that the employer make sure that the appropriate people are receiving the notifications – additional personnel should be added to receive those notifications if necessary.

If the employee enrolls online and makes their election online, and the feedback file is going to the employer, Pentegra would be copied as the 3(16) — and then would have taken the appropriate action in a timely manner.

Waste Not, Want Not

This phrase was the surprising moral to another unfortunate story. One of our staff tells the sorry tale:

“I had a meeting with the CFO of a large physician practice, a long-time client of a prior company I worked for. Our conversation bounced around but at one point it landed on the delivery of required notices. I asked him how he was handling this — paper or was he using electronic delivery? He looked at me sort of funny and said, ‘I delete them.’

“I wasn’t quite sure what he meant so I tried to get some clarification: ‘When you say you delete them, what exactly are you deleting?’ He told me that he gets the emails my company sent with the required notices and delivery instructions … but he assumed we were handling them. We were not.”

The lesson here should be self-evident: If in doubt, re-read your plan document – or at least consult with your 3(16) fiduciary.

Planting the Seed of Doubt

“We were doing a document review for a large seed company, which had over 300 employees and a very sharp, capable HR department,” one of our staff recalls. “During the review, our team noted the plan document included auto enrollment to which the Director of HR responded, ‘Yes, but we’ve never used it’.”

If that does not set off alarm bells, it should. When a provision is included in your plan document, it is not optional. This situation required a multiple-year review of all employees hired and documentation as to whether the employee was in the plan or, if not, if the employee had affirmed their desire to not participate in the plan.

It’s not just the correction but also the time and disruption these types of mistakes cost the employer.

No Employees?

“Faith is believing what you know ain’t so.” — Mark Twain

That quote was invoked by another Pentegra staffer when recounting a discussion he once had with a physician group. “They were very confident they did not fall under the Title I requirements of ERISA,” he recalled. “The practice had outsourced all non-physician employees, and all the physicians were made partner after one year in the practice.

“The eligibility for their plan was one year,” he continued, “so, by their calculation, they had no employees.”

This would seem to follow ERISA Section 2510.3-39(c)(2): “A partner in a partnership and his or her spouse shall not be deemed to be employees with respect to the partnership.” However, even though the plan in this case would not be subject to ERISA because no employees were covered, it still must satisfy all the applicable requirements of the IRS Code in order to qualify for employee benefit tax breaks.

“While I was speaking with their practice manager, who was a contract employee, I was also reading through their adoption agreement, which clearly stated they had a six-month eligibility requirement,” our advisor continued. “When I pointed this out, the practice manager again said, ‘No, it’s a 12-month eligibility requirement.’ I asked him if what I was reading was in fact the most up-to-date adoption agreement … and it was.

“Needless to say,” he concluded, “they had a problem that required fixing.”

Look for more tales in our next blog. Until then, read your plan document!

Source: https://www.pentegra.com/current-thinking/fiduciary-governance-and-outsourcing/fumbling-the-fiduciary-ball/