401k Audits

The SECURE 2.0 Act, enacted in 2022, significantly enhances the original Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act. To improve retirement savings opportunities across the United States, it introduces over 90 provisions designed to expand access, improve flexibility, and encourage participation in employer-sponsored retirement plans. In light of this legislation, the IRS has released new guidance (Notice 2024-2) that targets critical facets of the legislation. This guidance is crucial for plan sponsors, ensuring they can both comply with the new regulations and optimize their retirement plan offerings. As the IRS is expected to issue more updates, plan sponsors must stay informed and prepared to adapt to these changes ahead.

The SECURE Act 2.0 passed into law in December 2022 calls for several updates to plan operations. Due to the comprehensive nature of the legislation, many updates are set to phase in over five years. Provisions effective in 2024 include introducing Starter 401k plans, student loan matching payments, deferral failure corrections, and introducing a new emergency savings account (PLESA). These accounts are limited to $2,500 in annual contributions and the first four withdrawals are tax-free. While regulations guiding all new provisions have yet to be issued, the IRS recently released Notice 2024-22 which provides important details on PLESA anti-abuse rules.

Over the past decade, the Department of Labor (DOL) has expressed growing concern about the quality of employee benefit plan audits. When there are deficiencies or other issues, it means that plan participants may not be receiving the important protections offered by a properly conducted audit. To better understand the issue and identify contributing factors, the DOL has published several plan audit quality reports in 1997, 2004, and 2015. Key details about deficiencies, quality by size of CPA firm, and other important information have been reviewed and analyzed. The findings have been useful to regulators and companies when hiring a new plan auditor.

Over the past few years, Congress has passed various legislation designed to make it easier to participate in and save money in an employer sponsored retirement plan. The growing retirement savings gap has long been an issue the government has been working to address. Efforts to change retirement savings started with the  SECURE Act of 2019 and mostly recently included additional reforms that culminated in the SECURE Act 2.0. The latter included many changes designed to encourage employers to start workplace plans and to make it easier for workers to participate. Many of the updates are significant and are scheduled to become effective over a 5-year period.

The alarming situation has prompted Congress into action calling for significant changes to make it easier for workers to qualify, participate in, and benefit from employer sponsored retirement plans. Most recently the SECURE Act 2.0 was signed into law which outlines changes to accelerate saving opportunities. Despite it’s sweeping nature, many in Congress are looking for more ways to streamline the process. One example is the Auto Reenroll Act of 2023 which was introduced in late July and allows employers to automatically reenroll non plan participants.

The SECURE Act 2.0, which was enacted in late 2022, builds upon updates made in the 2019 legislation of the same name. Many of the changes are designed to ensure broader access to plans, facilitate automatic enrollment and escalation, increase catch up contribution limits, and modify required minimum distribution (RMD) timing. There were also several employer targeted provisions designed to make it easier and less costly to offer and maintain an employer sponsored retirement plan. Beyond these changes, there were also updates to the rules governing plan distributions. While the focus is on finding ways to expand retirement savings, there were also updates made that allow for penalty free distributions to be taken under certain circumstances. This includes distributions for terminal illnesses, domestic abuse, and for birth/adoption

The SECURE Act 2.0 called for several changes to be made to retirement plans to facilitate broader access and additional retirement saving opportunities. These include the introduction of new distribution types for personal emergencies and victims of domestic abuse, changes to how catch-up contribution amounts are calculated, and changes to Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) requirements. Although there is a 5-year phase in period, the RMD changes went into effect at the start of 2023.This triggered the need for guidance on how regulators will handle non-compliance. The IRS recently issued Notice 2023.-54 which provides guidance on common RMD issues.

Included as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023, the legislation builds on many of the reforms made in the SECURE Act of 2019. Since the legislation is comprehensive not all the changes became effective when passed instead relying on a gradual phase-in over a several year period. Starting in 2024 several provisions will become effective including certain required minimum distribution rules (RMDs), the introduction of new 401(k) starter plans, penalty free early distributions, and much more.

In late 2022, President Biden signed the SECURE Act 2.0 into law as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023. The legislation included comprehensive changes designed to improve access to retirement saving accounts and make it easier to grow individual retirement savings. While many of the updates targeted workers, there were also some designed to make starting and administering an employer sponsored retirement plan easier and less costly. One important provision was contained in Section 305, which calls for an expansion of the Self Correction Program (SCP) under the IRS Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (EPCRS).

Over the last few years there have been several changes to rules governing employer sponsored retirement plans. The SECURE Act of 2019 outlined several changes to plan operations including participant access and eligibility to plan administration. Since that time, the Department of Labor (DOL) and IRS have periodically updated IRS Form 5500 and issued new rules to comply with these changes. The most recent came in May 2022 which generally addressed updates related to defined benefit plans. In late February an additional round of changes were announced effective for plan years starting on, or after, January 1, 2023. The update includes new participant thresholds, updated expense reporting, new Form 5500 questions, and more.