The countdown clock is running. The stadium lights are on, and the clock is ticking toward extra time. Plan sponsors must amend many qualified retirement plans by December 31, 2026. Just like in a World Cup knockout match, waiting invites costly mistakes.
Which Rule Changes Are Shifting the Field of Play?
Since 2019, three major
Each April, National Employee Benefits Day provides an opportunity to reflect on the rapidly shifting landscape of employer‑sponsored benefits.
From implementing new tax laws, a flurry of executive orders with implications for both retirement and welfare plans, updated agency guidance, increased litigation and enforcement activity, and updates to longstanding requirements, plan fiduciaries
Among the provisions of SECURE 2.0 (effective December 29, 2022) welcomed by plan sponsors were the additions to the Internal Revenue Code that allow qualified plans to refrain from trying to recoup an “inadvertent benefit overpayment” (referred to here as an IBO), and from having to restore such payments to the plan. In addition, the
Of interest to 401(k) plan sponsors and administrators, the IRS recently issued Notice 2024-55, providing guidance on SECURE 2.0’s new exceptions—effective January 1, 2024—to the additional 10% tax on early qualified retirement plan distributions for emergency personal expenses and victims of domestic abuse. Both types of distributions are optional and may be adopted through
If the U.S. Department of Labor’s Notice of Proposed Information Collection Request, issued on April 15, 2024, becomes final, fiduciary retirement plan committees may be asked to evaluate the important question of whether the plan should voluntarily submit missing participant data to the DOL before filing the next Form 5500. The DOL is seeking
Thanks to SECURE Act 2.0, newly established 401(k) and 403(b) plans must now have an automatic enrollment. The SECURE Act 2.0 was passed in December 2022 and made sweeping changes to retirement plan regulations. We discuss many of those changes in our SECURE Act 2.0 blog series.
Plans with an automatic enrollment feature immediately
The SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 had many retirement plan provisions, including the pension-linked emergency savings account (PLESA) that lets workers contribute money to an account in a defined contribution plan that can be used to cover unforeseen financial hardships. In consultation with the Treasury Department and the IRS, the DOL recently issued guidance regarding
It’s 2024, which means a new batch of provisions from SECURE Act 2.0 have gone into effect. One of the more significant ones is an increase in the “cashout” limit that a qualified plan can impose to kick former employees with small balances out of their plans.
The cashout limit allows a qualified plan to