Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation: Getting Ready for 2024 - Qualified Plans — Special Edition Podcast
How to Prepare for the IRS’s “New 90-Day Pre-Examination Compliance Pilot” Audit Process
Correcting Problems With Your Retirement Plan
Historically, the IRS' Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (EPCRS) has provided employers structured options for correcting retirement plan failures. Under this framework, certain operational errors qualified for...more
Under SECURE 2.0, plan sponsors were granted discretion to determine whether or not the plan would recoup "inadvertent benefit overpayments." However, SECURE 2.0, did not define the term, leaving implementation of the new...more
As announced in our previous HR Law Talk blog post, on January 15, the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) published a much anticipated amended and restated version of the...more
On January 14, 2025, the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) released its long-awaited final rules regarding changes to the Voluntary Fiduciary Compliance Program (VFCP). The new...more
The SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 requires certain 401(k) and 403(b) plans to include automatic enrollment and escalation features for the first plan year beginning after December 31, 2024, meaning that for those plans with a...more
Section 305 of SECURE 2.0 added rules for self-correcting a new category of retirement plan errors under the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (“ECPRS”). Specifically, Section 305 allows an “eligible inadvertent...more
SECURE 2.0 was enacted on December 29, 2022. Among its provisions is a requirement that “new” 401(k) plans and private sector 403(b) plans must automatically enroll their eligible employees, but not until the first plan year...more
The SECURE 2.0 Act made it easier for retirement plan sponsors to correct automatic enrollment errors. As a policy matter, Congress strongly supports automatic enrollment provisions in retirement plans, and making it easier...more
On October 15, 2024, the IRS released Notice 2024-77, providing guidance on the correction of inadvertent benefit overpayments under the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (“SECURE 2.0”). As background, effective December 29, 2022,...more
For over twenty years, the IRS has provided guidance on correcting overpayments from retirement plans through its correction program, the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System, currently set forth in Revenue Procedure...more
Administering a retirement plan is a complicated task fraught with potential missteps. Fortunately, employers are now able to self-correct most errors and thereby avoid the considerable time and expense of filing an...more
It is the first week of summer, even though in Ohio the smoldering heat has made it feel like summer for weeks now. Summer reminds many of us of pool days, eating watermelon and corn on the cob, Fourth of July fireworks, and...more
On February 7, 2024, the IRS announced it has started the second phase of the Pre-Examination Retirement Plan Compliance Program pilot. (IRS Employee Plans News, February 7, 2024) Original Program Pilot - The initial...more
The Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (“EPCRS”), as set forth in Revenue Procedure 2021-30, allows plan sponsors to correct “Qualification Failures,” which are defined as any plan document, operational, demographic...more
The IRS released long-awaited guidance under the SECURE 2.0 Act on December 20, 2023. Notice 2024-2 (Notice) provides clarification of various provisions, including several optional features that plan sponsors have been...more
In the inaugural episode of Troutman Pepper’s three-part Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation podcast miniseries, hosts Lynne Wakefield, Constance Brewster, and Brianna Hourihan discuss recent legislative developments...more
It’s that time of year again when calendar year 401(k) plans must send annual retirement plan notices. As you work with your service providers to make sure all notices are sent, now may be a good time to reacquaint yourself...more
Errors in retirement plans happen even to the most well-intentioned plan sponsors. Several decades ago, the IRS published the first version of the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution Program (EPCRS), which outlines...more
There has never been a better time for plan sponsors to prioritize reviewing and self-correcting eligible plan failures. SECURE 2.0, attached to the 2022 year-end Consolidated Appropriations Act, expands retirement savings...more
Effective December 29, 2022, Section 305 of SECURE 2.0 expands the ability for plan sponsors to self-correct certain plan failures under the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (“EPCRS”). Section 305 of SECURE 2.0...more
The self-correction of retirement plan operational failures under IRS correction principles has been conditioned upon a plan sponsor’s establishment of compliance practices and procedures since the creation of the Employee...more
The IRS recently issued Notice 2023-43 (Notice) to provide interim guidance on Section 305 of SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (SECURE 2.0), which significantly expanded self-correction under the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution...more
The IRS recently issued Notice 2023-43 providing new interim guidance for self-correction of plan errors. This guidance applies to corrections made prior to the anticipated issuance of revisions to the Employee Plans...more
The Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (EPCRS) allows employers to correct errors involving the maintenance and operation of tax-qualified retirement plans. Depending on the severity...more
Recently, the IRS released Notice 2023-43, providing interim guidance on Section 305 of the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022, which expanded the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (EPCRS), the system through which plan...more