On April 3, 2025, the Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued Field Assistance Bulletin 2025-02 (the “Bulletin”), which provides guidance related to certain modifications made by the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (“SECURE 2.0”) to the...more
On October 3, 2024, the Department of the Treasury (“Treasury”) and the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) issued Notice 2024-73 (the “Notice”) to clarify eligibility rules for long-term, part-time (“LTPT”) employees in 403(b)...more
On May 20, 2024, the IRS issued private letter ruling (“PLR”) 202434006 (the “2024 PLR”) that permits employees to allocate an employer contribution among various benefits outside of a cafeteria plan. The IRS has previously...more
On August 19, 2024, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) issued Notice 2024-63 (the “Notice”) for retirement plan sponsors that provide, or may wish to provide, matching contributions based on qualified student loan payments...more
At long last, the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) issued final (and new proposed) regulations that address the major changes to Code section 401(a)(9) under the Setting Every Community Up for...more
The IRS recently issued guidance in Notice 2024-55 on the application of two new exceptions to the 10% additional tax under Code section 72(t) for early withdrawals from a qualified plan or IRA, which were added by Sections...more
Over the past several years, there has been a growing interest in enhancing employee benefit programs to help employees save for emergencies. Employers and service providers have developed a number of different types of...more
On November 24, 2023, the IRS issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, which provides long-awaited proposed regulations regarding the “long-term, part-time employees” rules under the SECURE Act of 2019 (“SECURE 1.0”) and the...more
The IRS recently announced that many of the key retirement plan limits will increase next year. Notice 2023-75 (Nov. 1, 2023). These limit increases are more modest than the 2023 increases, with some limits remaining the...more
Last week, the IRS issued Notice 2023-54 (“Notice”) that provides a variety of relief for both plan sponsors and IRA providers, along with participants/IRA owners and their beneficiaries, while we await the final Code section...more
The IRS has issued interim guidance to address the changes made by section 305 of SECURE 2.0 to the self-correction program under the IRS Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (commonly referred to as “EPCRS”). While...more
In August of 2018, the Main Street Employee Ownership Act (“MSEOA”) became law as part of the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act. The intent behind the MSEOA was to promote the establishment of employee stock...more
The wide-ranging SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (“SECURE 2.0”) radically altered the retirement plan landscape, and is likely to create a significant number of action items for sponsors of retirement plans for tax-exempt entities and...more
3/14/2023
/ 401k ,
403(b) Plans ,
457(b) Plans ,
Church Plans ,
Compensation & Benefits ,
Employee Benefits ,
Multiemployer Plan ,
New Legislation ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Retirement Plan ,
SECURE Act ,
Tax Exemptions
With its more than 90 retirement provisions, SECURE 2.0 has set out to improve the retirement system and increase retirement savings. Notably, included are measures to improve upon the handling of defined benefit plans. Here,...more
On December 30, the Department of Treasury (“Treasury”) and the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) released a notice of proposed rules relating to the use of an electronic medium for retirement plan participant elections and...more
Yesterday, the Senate passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 (the “CAA”) to fund the government through September 30, 2023. Division T of the legislation is the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (“SECURE 2.0”), which builds...more
Continuing a recent trend to more closely align 403(b) plans with tax-qualified 401(k) plans, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) recently issued Revenue Procedure 2022-40 (November 7, 2022) to create a limited determination...more
As the end of 2022 approaches, it’s again time for plan sponsors to review their plan documents and plan operations to ensure compliance with increasingly complex qualification requirements and moving deadlines. While there...more
The IRS recently issued an updated Listing of Required Modifications and Information Package (known as the “LRMs”) for 403(b) plans. These LRMs contain quite a few changes, from simple clarifications and explanatory notes,...more
As we approach the end of 2021, it’s again time for sponsors of 401(a) and 403(b) plans to review their plan documents and plan operations to ensure compliance with increasingly complex qualification requirements. While...more
The IRS recently announced (Notice 2021-61, Nov. 4, 2021) that many of the key pension limits will increase next year – some significantly due to higher inflation. The Social Security Administration and PBGC also recently...more
On June 23, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) issued Notice 2020-51, which provides much-needed guidance on how defined contribution plans (including 403(b) and governmental 457(b) plans) and IRAs implement the waiver of...more
6/26/2020
/ Benefit Plan Sponsors ,
CARES Act ,
Defined Contribution Plans ,
Employee Benefits ,
Individual Retirement Account (IRA) ,
IRA Rollovers ,
IRS ,
Required Minimum Distributions ,
Retirement ,
Retirement Plan ,
Retirement Plan Providers ,
SECURE Act
On June 19, 2020, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) issued Notice 2020-50, which provides clarity to plan administrators and participants on coronavirus-related loans and distributions following the passage of the...more
On June 3, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) issued Notice 2020-42 to provide temporary relief for certain participant elections required to be witnessed in the “physical presence” of a plan representative or notary...more
IRS Notice 2020-35 is a follow-on to Notice 2020-23 that provided for a wide range of pension filings and actions that were otherwise due between April 1 and July 14, 2020 that were extended until July 15, 2020. ...more
6/1/2020
/ 403(b) Plans ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Defined Benefit Plans ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
EPCRS ,
Excise Tax ,
Filing Deadlines ,
Form 5500 ,
IRS ,
Pensions ,
Retirement Plan