2023 End of Year Plan Sponsor To-Do List for Qualified Retirement Plans
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Compliance and Regulatory 2023 End of Year Plan Sponsor To-Do List for Qualified Retirement Plans As 2023 comes to an end, the law firm Snell & Wilmer presents their "End of Year Plan Sponsor To-Do Lists." It provides plan sponsors with a to-do list of items on which they may want to take action before the end of 2023 or in early 2024. Source: Swlaw.com 2024 Key Administrative Dates and Deadlines for Calendar-Year DC Retirement Plans This five-page compliance calendar for 2024 lists key administrative dates and deadlines for defined contribution plans, from January to December, with more than four dozen relevant entries for plan sponsors working in the DC space. Source: Milliman.com Chart: Long-Term, Part-Time Employees IRS Proposed Regulations While the IRS uses the name "long-term, part-time employees" in the proposed regulations, these rules apply to part-time, seasonal, and other types of reduced-hours workers, and could potentially apply to even some full-time employees if a plan uses hours to determine eligibility to participate. More detailed information about the proposed regulations is included in this chart. Source: Sgrlaw.com DOL, IRS Announce Spring Regulatory Agendas The Internal Revenue Service and Department of Labor published their regulatory agendas for spring 2024. The agendas describe the short-term objectives of the regulators and contain items related to the fiduciary adviser definition proposal, SECURE 2.0, health plans, fiduciary corrections, and employee ownership. Source: Planadviser.com »» Click here for more Compliance and Regulatory Material Fiduciary and Plan Governance Fiduciary Excellence 101: Best Practices for Committee Success A practical aspect that is sometimes overlooked or unconsidered to a meaningful degree is the committee structure; more specifically, whether the committee size is positioned for successful decision-making. That is the focus of this article. Source: Americantrust.com Incorporating Alternatives Into DC Plans Brings Challenges, Opportunities for Plan Sponsors While plan sponsors face challenges to including alternative investments among their defined contribution plans, as well as legal barriers to providing access, researchers at the Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association Academic Forum last week argued that these illiquid asset classes provide participants a significant opportunity for growth. Source: Plansponsor.com »» Click here for more Fiduciary and Plan Governance Material Insight: Studies, Research, Analysis, and White Papers Pew Policy Summit Explores Retirement Security Issues Faced by Nontraditional Workers Among the American workers who struggle most to save for retirement are those in nontraditional jobs, such as the self-employed, sole proprietors, gig workers, and contract workers. Several people with these jobs and a range of policy, business, and financial experts recently took part in a Nontraditional Workers and Retirement Policy Summit to better understand the problems and talk about potential steps to address them. Source: Pewtrusts.org 401k Loans, Hardship Withdrawals at 2-Year High Loan and hardship withdrawals taken from workplace retirement plans in the third quarter of 2023 hit their highest levels in more than two years, according to a report from Empower. Among a study of 5.3 million defined contribution workplace savers in Empower accounts, 0.8% took hardship withdrawals in Q3, and 2.6% took out loans from their savings. Those were the highest rates in the past eight quarters. Source: Planadviser.com »» Click here for More Studies, Research, and White Papers Items of Special Interest to Service Providers The Struggles of Being a 401k Plan Provider As a plan provider, there are a lot of struggles in this business and it takes a lot of confidence to overcome them. Ary Rosenbaum says, "As someone who didn't get confidence until I got wiser and stopped listening to negative people, I can assure you that you can deal with the struggles and grow your book of business." Here are a few insights from him. Source: Jdsupra.com This article overviews the Proposed Rule, how the Proposed Rule relates to (and differs from) the vacated 2016 Fiduciary Rule, and the perceived impact on investors and investment professionals currently subject to the existing regulatory landscape. The article also addresses related prohibited transaction exemptions that round out the proposed regulatory package, and how the package aims to level the playing field and provide clear and equal application of fiduciary protections. Source: Truckerhuss.com 403b Plans IRS Updates Publication 571 for 403b Tax-Sheltered Annuity Plans The IRS has released a draft of the updated version of Publication 571. This publication is intended to help taxpayers better understand the tax rules that apply to 403b tax-sheltered annuity plans. It covers maximum contribution amounts, excess contributions, the retirement savings contributions credit, and basic rules for distributions and rollovers. Source: Napa-net.org How Does the New Long-Term Part-Time Rule Affect 403b Plans? Experts from Groom Law Group and CAPTRUST answer the question, "How does the new Long-Term Part-Time employee rule under the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 affect 403b plans since we already have a universal availability requirement?" Source: Plansponsor.com »» Click here for More 403b Material Court and Legal Second Circuit Establishes Practical Pleading Requirement for Prohibited Transaction Claims The Second Circuit recently held that to state a claim for a prohibited transaction under ERISA section 406(a)(1)(C), it is not enough to allege that a fiduciary caused the plan to compensate a service provider for its services. Instead, "the complaint must plausibly allege that the services were unnecessary or involved unreasonable compensation." Source: Erisapracticecenter.com Tyson Foods Employees Allege Excessive 401k Plan Fees Tyson Foods' retirement plan committee is the defendant in a class action complaint filed by three employees accusing the Arkansas-based meat production company of passing on to participants excessive fees for 401k recordkeeping done by Northwest Plan Services. Source: Planadviser.com A Massachusetts federal court has given preliminary approval to a $61 million settlement in a pending lawsuit concerning General Electric's alleged mismanagement of retirement savings invested in a proprietary fund. The settlement would partially reimburse about 200,000 current and former participants in GE's 401k plan for losses incurred since September 2011 because of GE Asset Management's comparatively poor performance. Source: Hallbenefitslaw.com »» Click here for more Court and Other Legal Issues Legislative and Washington DC What's on Tap for the Next Retirement Plan Policy Bill? A year later, while most practitioners and retirement plan sponsors are focused on the implementation of the new SECURE 2.0 rules, Congress has quietly been putting forward new bipartisan proposals for consideration in the next round of retirement plan policymaking. Here are short descriptions of some of the proposals already introduced, and two specific legislative projects that the ARA is working on that are expected to be formally introduced in Congress soon. Source: Napa-net.org »» Click here for more on Legislative and Washington Actions Marketplace News Giant RIAs in Old-fashioned Donnybrook for Advisors and Clients AFS 401k Retirement Services Acquired by HUB
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