Retirement Plan Amendment Deadlines: Critical Dates You Want to Know

Sponsors of employee benefit plans should be aware of approaching retirement plan amendment deadlines and the need, as a plan sponsor, to take immediate action.

The following document contains source material and recommendations provided by Smith & Downey, P.A. and is included here with their permission and our appreciation. This is the first of three updates on key retirement plan amendments or disclosures required this year.

Retirement Plan Amendments

“…Plan sponsors must amend their retirement plan documents before the end of the 2022 plan year. Specifically, the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (the “SECURE Act”) and the Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security Act (the “CARES Act”) require plan amendments to reflect:

(a) certain mandatory changes, and/or

(b) optional changes employers chose to implement.

While plan sponsors already implemented many of these changes operationally, plan sponsors must amend their retirement plan documents to include these changes no later than December 31, 2022 (for certain calendar year plans).

Note that governmental plans have an extended deadline period to the last day of the 2024 plan year, but as a matter of good governance, governmental plan sponsors should consider updating these plans now to ensure the plan terms match what likely already has been updated in plan operations.”

Timely Next Steps Regarding Retirement Plan Amendment Deadlines

If your retirement plan documents have not been updated yet for these legislative and discretionary changes, you should contact your legal advisors immediately so that they can prepare an updated document before the deadline. In addition, your attorneys or advisors also should review and update the administrative forms and summary plan descriptions to ensure these employee communications are legally sufficient and match the terms of the plan.