Americans workers are not in the position to retire anytime soon, finds a new Q2 report by Schroders. The "DC Lens Q2 2024" report underlines some bleak updates to the state of participants' retirement readiness. According to the analysis, 28% of people have zero savings for their retirement, 39% are not contributing to a retirement fund, and 30% don't see a future where they can retire ..read more

The SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 includes helpful changes to retirement plans -- some mandatory and some optional -- that should increase coverage and allow participants to save more and longer for retirement. The law allows sponsors to tailor their plans more specifically to the needs of their plan population and also makes important improvements to plan administration. This 8-page article is designed to help plan sponsors understand the key provisions and suggests how plan sponsors might approach implementation ..read more

The DOL has encountered several stumbling blocks with the establishment of the Retirement Savings Lost and Found. Significantly, the DOL thought they would be able to obtain the participant data from Form 8955-SSA which is filed with the IRS. the DOL pivoted and concluded it instead needed to seek the voluntary disclosure of information to meet its 2-year deadline for establishing the Retirement Savings Lost and Found. Fiduciaries may find value in having access to a tool that can connect participants and beneficiaries to their plan benefits. However, there are several critical offsetting cons ..read more

On April 23, 2024, the DOL released its new fiduciary investment advice definition in a package titled the "Retirement Security Rule." The package is made up of four different components and represents a continuation of DOL's efforts to expand the types of interactions between retirement savers and financial professionals that are subject to ERISA. This article highlights a few key provisions of the package ..read more

On April 16, 2024, the IRS issued Notice 2024-35 which further extends the required minimum distributions relief for the fourth year in a row while plan sponsors, IRA providers, participants/IRA owners, and their beneficiaries await final Code section 401(a)(9) regulations. This Article provides a summary of the notice ..read more

There have been recent developments from both the IRS and the DOL and pending court cases about how plan forfeitures under defined contribution retirement plans must be handled. The purpose of this article is to summarize what the potential conflicts are and to make sure that employers are aware of them, and that until these potential conflicts are resolved, employers are administering their plans so as not to violate any of the rules ..read more

Reviewing plan fees and investment options are top fiduciary priorities for plan sponsors in 2024, but financial wellness and managed accounts are gaining ground in importance as benchmarked against prior years, according to investment consulting firm Callan’s 2024 DC Trends Survey. In a survey of 132 DC plan sponsors conducted in late 2023, Callan found that reviewing plan fees is the top fiduciary initiative in 2024 for 74% of respondents, followed by considering the investment policy statement and investment menu structure ..read more

If you administer a 403b plan you should be familiar with the term "universal availability." This concept means that, as a general rule, all employees must be allowed to make elective deferrals into the plan immediately upon hire. There are a few limited exceptions to this rule that permit the plan sponsor to exclude certain groups of people, but compliance with these exclusions is often akin to traversing a minefield ..read more

The final rule has been approved by the OMB and may be publicly available as early as May 1. The changes significantly impact both financial professionals and the financial institutions they represent. However, the impact will be greatest on the distribution of annuities, and regulatory attention is particularly focused on fixed-indexed annuities ..read more

The DOL recently filed an amicus brief in the pending Home Depot 401k litigation. The DOL summed up a fiduciary's duties vis-a-vis cost-consciousness. At first glance, the issue of reasonable expenses would seem to be fairly straightforward. However, cost issues are arguably potentially more complicated, especially in connection with more complicated investments such as annuities, which often lack the transparency of other investments. As a result, plan sponsors may mistakenly believe they understand an investment and its costs, while closer examination often reveals issues they had not initia ..read more