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01.05.2023 |
Congress recently approved some of the most sweeping changes to retirement plans in decades. The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 includes the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022. SECURE 2.0 makes numerous changes to qualified retirement plans, 403(b) plans, 457(b) plans, individual retirement accounts, and other employee benefits. The changes are designed to enhance access to retirement savings, preserve income, and lessen administrative burdens.
Employers will need to modify certain aspects of plan administration and make decisions about which optional plan provisions to adopt. This post provides an overview of the most relevant provisions of SECURE 2.0 and their effective dates. We will provide more detailed discussion of SECURE 2.0 and its implications in subsequent posts.
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12.28.2022 |
Legislation included in the huge omnibus spending bill approved by Congress in the waning days of 2022 will require employers to reevaluate and revise the 401(k) and 403(b) retirement plans they sponsor. Now officially known as the SECURE Act 2.0 of 2022, the legislation combines provisions of three separate bills that enjoyed bipartisan support throughout 2022. However, much like its predecessor, the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act passed in late 2019, SECURE 2.0’s fate was not known until it was included in must-pass legislation at year’s end.
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09.29.2022 |
The IRS has extended the plan amendment deadlines for all changes under the CARES Act, Miners Act, and SECURE Act to a single date.
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08.11.2022 |
The IRS issued Notice 2022-33, extending plan amendment deadlines for up to three years with respect to certain provisions of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), the Bipartisan American Miners Act of 2019 (the Miners Act), and the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (SECURE Act).
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02.11.2022 |
The SECURE Act added a new disclosure requirement for sponsors of defined contribution plans that becomes effective this year. Plan sponsors of ERISA-covered defined contribution plans must provide participants with a lifetime income disclosure (at least annually) which estimates the monthly income that a participant’s account balance could produce if paid in the form of a qualified joint and survivor annuity or single life annuity stream of payments, rather than a lump-sum.
For participant-directed plans, the initial lifetime income disclosures must be incorporated into benefit statements no later than June 30, 2022. For plans under which participants do not direct the investment of their account, the disclosures must be on the statement for the first plan year ending on or after September 19, 2021. For most plans, this will be October 15, 2022.
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08.19.2020 |
The SECURE and CARES Acts provide a broad spectrum of required and optional changes that employers must evaluate with respect to retirement plan administration. One impending change is the SECURE Act’s broader eligibility requirement for part-time employees in 401(k) plans, which becomes effective on January 1, 2021. In addition, employers may be surprised to learn that some CARES Act distribution options were added to their plans automatically by their record keepers through a “default” process. Thus, employers should review their plan’s administrative procedures to determine if (and how) changes under the SECURE Act and CARES Act were (and are being) implemented to ensure administrative compliance with the plan document.
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07.08.2020 |
The IRS has granted additional, albeit temporary, COVID-19-related relief for sponsors of “safe-harbor” 401(k) and 403(b) plans (i.e., plans that are exempt from one or both of the ADP and ACP nondiscrimination tests). Notice 2020-52, which was issued on June 29, 2020, provides temporary relief from the current requirements for mid-year amendments to such plans, and provides additional clarification regarding mid-year amendments to safe-harbor plans that only affect highly compensated employees. This guidance is welcome relief for plan sponsors who feel the financial need to reduce or suspend employer contributions under these plans, but who may not be able to satisfy the current regulatory requirements for mid-year amendments.
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02.14.2020 |
The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (the “SECURE” Act) has broad implications for retirement plans. Although the Act’s primary focus is on defined contribution plans, several provisions of the Act and its sister legislation apply only to defined benefit plans.
This is the fourth in a series of articles describing key provisions of the legislation. Our focus in this article is on the provisions applicable to defined benefit plans – in-service withdrawals, required minimum distributions, and nondiscrimination testing relief.
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02.12.2020 |
On December 20, 2019, President Trump signed into law the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020, which includes the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act (the “SECURE” Act). The SECURE Act represents the most significant retirement legislation in more than a decade (i.e., since the Pension Protection Act of 2006).
This is the third in a series of articles describing key provisions of the SECURE Act. Our focus in this article is on the provisions that are unique to Section 403(b) tax-sheltered annuity plans, governmental Section 457(b) plans, and Individual Retirement Accounts/Annuities (IRAs). Many of the SECURE Act provisions that are broadly applicable to retirement plans (such as the increase in the age at which required minimum distributions must begin, and the new rules curtailing the ability to “stretch” post-death minimum distributions under defined contribution plans over the life expectancy of the participant’s designated beneficiary) also apply to 403(b) plans, 457(b) plans, and IRAs. Because we addressed those provisions in the second article in this series, we will not do so again here.
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01.28.2020 |
On December 20, 2019, President Trump signed into law the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020, which includes the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act (the “SECURE” Act). The SECURE Act amounts to the most significant retirement legislation in more than a decade. Our focus in this article is on the legislation’s effect on retirement plans generally, including provisions broadly applicable to defined contribution, defined benefit, 401(k), 403(b), and certain 457(b) plans.
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