Retirement Plans Archives - Spotlight on Benefits

Stop the Presses – Annual Funding Notice Guidance Issued

On April 3, 2025, the Department of Labor (DOL) issued guidance on the Annual Funding Notice changes made by the SECURE Act 2.0 and provided model notices. Pension plan administrators should review and revise their annual funding notices in light of the new guidance.

Background

Section 343 of SECURE Act 2.0, passed December 29, 2022, implemented changes to the annual funding notice provided to defined benefit pension plan participants. The changes became effective for plan years beginning after December 31, 2023. For calendar year pension plans, the 2024 Annual Funding Notice (due no later than April 30, 2025) would be the first notice implementing the new rules. The DOL had not issued guidance or provided a model notice until the afternoon of April 3, 2025.

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(Auto) Enroll With It: Understanding the New Automatic Enrollment Requirements

On January 10, 2025, the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service issued Proposed Regulations on the automatic enrollment requirements introduced by SECURE 2.0. The Proposed Regulations incorporate and expand upon previously issued interim guidance under IRS Notice 2024-2 and address various open issues.

SECURE 2.0

SECURE 2.0 generally requires that new 401(k) and 403(b) plans that are established on or after December 29, 2022 (the “enactment date”), automatically enroll employees at a uniform contribution rate of 3% (but not more than 10%) and also automatically increase the contribution rate by 1% annually, up to at least 10% (with a cap at 15%).

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New Self-Correction Component under the DOL’s Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program

The Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program (VFCP) has long been a source of reprieve to plan sponsors and fiduciaries from enforcement actions by the Department of Labor (DOL), by allowing the voluntary correction of a number of Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) violations before potential agency intervention. In coming forward and voluntarily correcting certain errors, the DOL continues to encourage plan sponsors and fiduciaries to engage in such behavior by issuing letters to those who have accepted VFCP submissions stating that the agency will not take any further action and will not pursue civil penalties on those matters. However, VFCP submissions require detailed applications which can be time-consuming and costly to prepare in comparison to the potentially minor correction that they are intended to rectify.

On January 15, 2025, the DOL’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) amended and restated the VFCP, including finalized amendments to Prohibited Transaction Exception (PTE) 2002-51, to be effective March 17, 2025.

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DOL Lost & Found Database for Retirement Savings Goes Live

If you have ever found $10 in the pocket of a coat that you have not worn for some time, you are familiar with the delight of finding lost money that belongs to you. The Department of Labor’s new Retirement Savings Lost & Found Database (Database) seeks to recreate that feeling in the employee benefits realm by reuniting missing participants and beneficiaries with benefits they may have accrued under job-based retirement plans.

The importance of locating missing participants

Taking steps to find participants and beneficiaries who may be owed a benefit is important to companies that sponsor retirement plans for several reasons.

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PBGC Issues Technical Update on Accelerated Due Date for 2025 Premium Filings

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) has issued its first technical update of the year to provide guidance on the accelerated premium filing date for plan years that begin in 2025.

As required by a provision in the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, for plan years that begin in 2025, the PBGC premium filing due date for all plans is the 15^th day of the 9^th calendar month that begins on or after the first day of the plan year. This is a change from the normal due date under the PBGC regulations, which is the 15^th day of the 10^th calendar month that begins on or after the first day of the plan year. The provision also supersedes the special due dates that typically apply for certain new plans and plans that complete a standard termination before the normal premium due date.

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Correcting Automatic Enrollment Errors

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 to correct errors should (hopefully) encourage retirement plan sponsors to add such features to their plans. This post focuses on the automatic enrollment correction provisions of the SECURE 2.0 Act. (For an overview of the SECURE 2.0 Act for defined contribution plan sponsors, click here.)

Correcting Automatic Enrollment Errors

Section 350 of the SECURE 2.0 Act codified a safe harbor correction for automatic enrollment errors into the Internal Revenue Code. Prior to the SECURE 2.0 Act, automatic enrollment errors were eligible for correction under EPCRS (Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System) but were often subject to a sunset provision by the IRS (although that sunset provision had been extended previously).

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IRS Announces 2025 Retirement Plan Limits

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently announced the 2025 cost-of-living adjustments to various benefit and contribution limits applicable to retirement plans. The IRS modestly increased the applicable limits for 2025. The following limits apply to retirement plans in 2025:

The limit on elective deferrals under 401(k), 403(b) and eligible 457(b) plans increased to $23,500.
The limit on catch-up contributions by participants aged 50 or older did not change and remains at $7,500. This means that the maximum amount of elective deferral contributions for those participants in 2025 is $31,000.
The enhanced catch-up contribution limit for those ages 60-63 in 2025 is $11,250. This means that the maximum amount of elective deferral contributions for these participants in 2025 is $34,750.
The Internal Revenue Code (Code) Section 415 annual addition limit is increased to $70,000 for 401(k) and other defined contribution plans, and the annual benefit limit is increased to $280,000 for defined benefit plans.
The limit on the annual compensation that can be taken into account by qualified plans under Code Section 417 is increased to $350,000.
The dollar level threshold for becoming a highly compensated employee under Code Section 414(q) increased to $160,000 (which, under the look-back rule, applies to HCE determinations in 2026 based on compensation paid in 2025).
The dollar level threshold for becoming a “key employee” in a top-heavy plan under Code Section 416(i)(1) is increased to $230,000.

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Trends in Optional Features Available Under Secure Act 2.0

During our October 30, 2024 webinar, “It’s 2024 and … It’s Decision Time in the Retirement Plan World!” we polled our audience on their interest in adding optional features available under Secure Act 2.0 (discussed in our prior blog post). The results are in!

Based on the responses to our polls:

There is very little interest in adding Pension-Linked Emergency Savings Accounts with 60 percent of respondents selecting “Strong No” and an additional 13 percent responding “Lean No,” for a total negative response rate of 73 percent.
Similarly, a strong response against adding Emergency Personal Expense Distribution with a collective 65 percent of respondents selecting “Strong No” or “Lean No.”
Student Loan Matching Contributions were not given a passing grade with a collective 56 percent of respondents selecting “Strong No” or “Lean No.”
In contract, there was more interest in adding Qualified Birth or Adoption Distribution (a collective 40 percent “Strong Yes” or “Lean Yes”) and Domestic Abuse Victim Distribution (a collective 39 percent “Strong Yes” or “Lean Yes”).
The Disaster Recovery Distribution was in the middle, with 43 percent responding “Maybe,” 29 percent not interested in adding these to their plan and 15 percent planning to add this option to their plan.

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Retirement Philosophy

As qualified retirement plan sponsors evaluate the various new distribution options available under SECURE 2.0 (read our overview here), it is worth asking: What is your company’s retirement philosophy? The answer to this question will help guide plan sponsors (including, where applicable, the benefits committee) in determining what changes, if any, they’d like to make to their plans.

As we’ve been advising and discussing the new SECURE 2.0 distribution options with our clients, there are three different philosophies we’ve seen:

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New DOL Fiduciary Rule Stayed: What Advisors and Insurance Agents Recommending Rollovers Should Do Now

The stay of the new DOL fiduciary rule will remain in effect until the lawsuits challenging the rule are decided and appeals are resolved. This litigation process is likely to take several years. In the meantime, the fiduciary status of advisors and agents will be measured under the current regulation’s five-part test. However, in some cases the application of that test could result, as this article explains, in apparent one-time recommendations being deemed to satisfy the five-part test. As a result, advisors, agents and their firms should carefully consider where fiduciary status for retirement accounts may apply and, in those cases, should consider complying with the conditions of an applicable prohibited transaction exemption.

To view the full alert, visit the Faegre Drinker website.