More Retirement Plan Changes for Educational Employers

Many educational employers have only recently completed restatements or amendments of their 403(b) plans to take advantage of the Internal Revenue Service's correction period for fixing plan document errors that expires March 31, 2020, or to address the new hardship distribution provisions that became mandatory January 1, 2020. Rather than being able to move on to other items on their to-do lists, however, employers returned from winter break to find that Congress had passed, and the President had signed into law, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2020, which included the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act. The SECURE Act, which became law on December 20, 2019, was several years in the making and has a wide ranging impact on retirement plans. 
 
The attached chart provides an overview of the changes under the SECURE Act that particularly impact the retirement plans sponsored by public and private educational employers, including qualified 401(a) or 401(k) plans, 403(b) plans, and 457(b) plans. The chart specifies which changes are required and which are optional, what plans are affected by each change, and special considerations for employers. 
 
The SECURE Act requires retirement plans to be amended for changes by the last day of the first plan year beginning on or after January 1, 2022 (January 1, 2024 for governmental plans and certain collectively bargained plans) or such later date that Treasury provides for any plan amendment required under the SECURE Act. However, many changes are already operationally effective, so it is important for educational employers to understand how these laws impact their retirement plans in order to ensure compliant operation and accurate employee communication.
 
Given that many of the SECURE Act provisions are already effective, we anticipate the Treasury and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will issue guidance in 2020 on questions that need more immediate answers. We will continue to monitor for such developments.

For more information about how the SECURE Act might affect your employee benefit plans, please contact Tara Schulstad Sciscoe, Raven Merlau, Chris Sears, Audra Ferguson-Allen, Shalina Schaefer, Robert Gauss or the Ice Miller employee benefits attorney with whom you work.

This publication is intended for general information purposes only and does not and is not intended to constitute legal advice. The reader should consult with legal counsel to determine how laws or decisions discussed herein apply to the reader’s specific circumstances.