10 exam-style questions with answers and explanations, straight from our 1,030-question bank. Tap an answer to check yourself. When you're ready, take the scored version in the free practice test.
The QPA exam has 66 questions and runs 2 hours 30 minutes.
These 10 free QPA questions are organized by exam domain, so you can see how each part of the Qualified Pension Administrator blueprint is tested. Reveal the answer and explanation under each question.
After freezing all future pension accruals, a chief financial officer removes employer pension contributions from every future budget. The plan remains ongoing and still owes previously accrued benefits. Why is a freeze alone insufficient to support that budgeting decision?
Correct answer: A - Previously accrued liabilities can still generate required employer contributions.
A plan with normal retirement age 65 formerly provided an unreduced pension from age 60 after 20 years of service. When an amendment removes that subsidy, Elena is 58 with 19 years of service. She stays employed and retires at 61 with 22 years. No statutory anti-cutback exception applies. Which decision correctly applies the anti-cutback rule?
Correct answer: C - Apply the former subsidy to her pre-amendment pension once its original conditions are met.
Two valuations price the same immediate single-life annuity on the same date. The second uses a higher discount rate and a mortality table with lower death probabilities at every future age. Payment amounts and all other assumptions are unchanged. A reviewer predicts that the second present value must be lower. Is that conclusion justified?
Correct answer: C - Not without revaluation; the two assumption changes have opposing effects.
A retirement election offers a $2,700 monthly single-life pension or an actuarially equivalent 75% joint-and-survivor annuity. For the participant and spouse at the same starting date, the annuity factors are 12.0 for single life and 13.5 for the joint-and-survivor form. Each factor values $1 of annual pension paid in monthly installments. Under the joint-and-survivor election, what are the participant's monthly payment and the spouse's monthly payment after the participant dies, respectively?
Correct answer: D - $2,400; $1,800
Maya's cash-balance statement begins the year at $120,000. Her eligible compensation is $90,000. The plan credits 4% interest on the opening balance and a 6% pay credit at year-end; that pay credit earns no interest until the following year. The trust's investments lost 8% during the year. What balance belongs on Maya's year-end statement?
Correct answer: D - $130,200
A $240,000 direct rollover from a defined benefit plan is scheduled for release this afternoon. The married participant elected the lump sum, but only the participant signed the election. The spouse is available and has not consented; no spousal-consent exception applies. The sponsor asks the administrator to release the payment and collect the spouse's signature next week. What is required before this payment can be released?
Correct answer: B - Written spousal consent witnessed by a plan representative or notary.
During a divorce, a former spouse seeks a pension payable over her own lifetime, beginning while the participant is still employed. The participant has reached the plan's earliest retirement age but has not begun benefits. The defined benefit plan permits separate-interest awards and the requested annuity form. Which QDRO arrangement meets both of the former spouse's objectives?
Correct answer: B - A separate-interest award valued over the former spouse's lifetime.
A retiring participant elects a direct rollover of an eligible lump-sum pension distribution to a traditional IRA. The check is payable solely to the IRA custodian for the participant's benefit, but it will be mailed to the participant for delivery to the custodian. All distribution and consent requirements are satisfied. How should the administrator handle federal withholding?
Correct answer: A - Apply no mandatory 20% withholding; the check is payable to the IRA custodian.
The enrolled actuary certifies an adjusted funding target attainment percentage (AFTAP) of 73% for an ongoing single-employer defined benefit plan. The sponsor is not in bankruptcy, and no exception or additional contribution removes the funding-based restrictions. The plan otherwise permits lump sums. Which description correctly translates this certification into benefit administration?
Correct answer: A - Lump sums are partially restricted; ordinary benefit accruals may continue.
Luis was born in 1953 and turns 73 in 2026. He remains employed by the company sponsoring his fully vested defined benefit pension and owns 8% of that company. The plan's normal retirement age is 65, and its distribution provisions permit the still-working exception whenever federal law allows it. Luis asks to defer required commencement until he retires. The still-working exception is unavailable because Luis:
Correct answer: C - Owns more than 5% of the sponsoring employer.
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