Slow Down: I Can’t Keep Up! Notice Requirements for Defined Contribution Plans

Plan sponsors and their administrators have loads of issues to address in sponsoring qualified retirement plans. Keeping up with participant notifications is one of them. Much of the chore is handled by recordkeepers—but are you complying with the rules? There are many to track: a notice regarding rollovers and taxation when a participant takes a distribution; another when a domestic relations order is received; and yet others to let participants know about participant-directed plan investments, that the fiduciaries rely on Section 404(c), or even that a plan investment is being eliminated. It’s a lot! Use our checklists, practice notes, and resource kit to stay on top of these and other participant notification requirements.

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Related Content

• Participant Disclosure Checklist (ERISA and Qualified Retirement Plan) See how much defined contribution plans have in common with defined benefit plans. Lots of notifications are the same, as you’d anticipate, summary plan descriptions among them.  Reference this checklist for starters.
• Electronic Disclosure Rules (ERISA Safe Harbors) Review how hosting participant notifications, on a secure website, has become common for many plan recordkeepers, primarily for 401(k) and 403(b) plans. Regulations set forth standards on hosting notifications and other records electronically, for participants and other disclosure recipients.
• ERISA Retirement Plan Notices Resource Kit Use this resource kit to understand the rules surrounding notice or disclosure requirements for all qualified defined benefit and defined contribution retirement plans.

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