There is an encouraging sign that Congressional staff and other legislative writers may finally be taking seriously the notion that that 403(b) plans really are fundamentally different than 401(k) plans.  This “sign” takes the form of Section 112 of the SECURE Act, under which sponsors of “cash or deferred arrangements”   must allow long-term employees working more than 500 but less than 1,000 hours per year to make elective deferrals to their plans. At first glance,…

“Aggregating” plans has now taken center stage with the passage of the SECURE Act. We now often find ourselves a bit muddled by the new array of terms with which we now need to deal.  Keep this as a (hopefully) handy glossary to guide when you find yourself caught in the middle of a conversation about “Multiple Employer Plans, and need to quickly summarize the different MEP types: 1.  MEP: This is your plain vanilla, traditional…

The SECURE Act will make substantial and highly technical changes to some very specific elements of retirement plan laws, many to which we have been putting a good deal of attention (and written about here) throughout the years-like distribution of 403(b) custodial accounts; aggregating 5500s of unrelated plans; MEPs (see the Multiple Employer Plans Topics Categories in this site’s “Topics” sidebar); and the fiduciary safe harbor for annuity purchases. Before we…

Long-time readers may recognize this as a version of the Mother’s Day blog I would periodically post in honor of Mom. It has been nearly two years since her passing, and I have not posted it since. But it seems that sharing these notions now, during Thanksgiving week, makes some sense. Hopefully, it may help remind us of things we often let pass, and give us some measure of perspective around what we do and…

  Lifetime Income from Defined Contribution continues to gain traction, which means that those tasked with administering these programs really need to start paying attention to the details of how its done. This also means understanding how the Joint & Survivor Annuity rules-rules which many have spent a career avoiding in 401(k) plans- operate. This then means understanding how Revenue Ruling 2012-03 actually works. Revenue Ruling 2012-3 was issued by Treasury as part of a…

The long awaited remedial amendment period rules were released a few weeks ago, under Rev Proc 2019-39.  The IRS needed to issue regulatory guidance on how much time a plan sponsor had to amend its 403(b) plan because the Code Section which governs these sorts of changes for 401(k) plans -Section 401(b)-does not apply to 403(b) plans. Of the so many discreet elements of the differences between 401(k) and 403(b) that the drafters of…

Code Section 402(g)(7) seems to have a gift for certain 403(b) plan sponsors (that is, for “qualified organizations, being educational organizations, hospitals, home health service agencies, health and welfare service agencies, churches, or convention or association of churches): the annual elective deferral limit for participants in these plans with “15 years of service” with the qualified organization can be as much as $3,000 greater than the existing limit for everyone else, up to a lifetime…