BENEFITS DIGEST

NAPA reports that the IRS regulations implementing the SECURE 2.0 automatic enrollment requirements for 401(k) and 403(b) plans have cleared White House review and could be released in the near future. [OIRA’s docket](https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/eoDetails?rrid=1440111) confirms the Treasury rule, Automatic Enrollment Requirements Under Section 414A, concluded review on October 16, likewise cleared with changes made during review. Sponsors covered by the mandate have been operating on proposed rules and notices while the final text sat in review.

Marsh projects a $25,500 employee contribution limit for 401(k), 403(b), and eligible 457 plans in 2027. It estimates an $8,500 catch-up limit for most eligible workers ages 50 and older and $11,750 for those ages 60 through 63. The estimates incorporate September’s inflation reading and remain provisional until the IRS announces the official limits, which usually arrive in late October or early November.

The Ask the Experts column walks through which participant count governs a 403(b) plan’s Form 5500 filing status. For plan years beginning in 2023 and later, large-plan versus small-plan status for defined contribution plans generally turns on participants with account balances, while other questions on the form use different counts, so eligible employees without balances may drop out of one number and remain in another. The experts’ caution is to resist using the filing-status count for every participant line on the form.

An unfinished audit leaves a 403(b) sponsor with a filing problem, not an obvious extension. Groom Law Group and CAPTRUST recommend getting a realistic completion date from the auditor and taking that information to outside ERISA counsel. The DOL’s Delinquent Filer Voluntary Compliance Program may help address a late filing, but the authors advise getting counsel’s direction on whether and when to use it. Their answer doesn’t endorse submitting an incomplete Form 5500.

December 31, 2026 is an important retirement plan amendment deadline, but it isn’t the deadline for every change. Segal explains which amendments are due this year, which follow the IRS’s separate timetable for individually designed plans, and which qualify for later deadlines. The year-end date applies to non-governmental single-employer plans, including 403(b) plans not maintained by public schools, while collectively bargained plans have until the end of 2028 and governmental plans until the end of 2029. The date matters most for the long list of discretionary features that trigger amendments only if a plan has adopted them, such as in-service distributions at 59½, emergency savings accounts, Roth treatment of employer contributions, the $7,000 cash-out limit, student loan matching and hardship self-certification. Extra time to amend the paperwork didn’t give plans extra time to follow the law. The amendments must reflect when each provision actually took effect for the plan.

Retirement Learning Center’s Case of the Week takes a question from a financial advisor and explains a trap in plan terminations. Terminating a 401(k) normally lets participants take their money, but not if the employer keeps or creates another plan. If any alternative defined contribution plan exists from the termination date through 12 months after the last dollar is paid out, the termination is not a valid reason to distribute employees’ salary contributions and certain other protected contributions. The restriction is about using termination as a distribution event, not a flat ban on replacing a plan. Some replacements don’t count, including an ESOP, a SEP, a SIMPLE IRA, a 403(b) and a 457(b) plan, and there is a narrow exception for a new plan that covers almost entirely different employees. The piece walks through a sponsor that wants to terminate in October, pay out by December and start fresh in January, which fails, and suggests a merger or transfer instead.

A new ICI and ISS Market Intelligence profile of large ERISA 403(b) plans, built from Form 5500 filings for 5,332 plans with at least 100 participants, finds employer contributions reached $13 billion in 2023, two and a half times the 2009 figure. Costs moved the other way. The average participant was in a plan costing 0.45 percent of assets in 2023, down from 0.68 percent in 2009. The share of large plans offering an employer contribution rose from 71 percent to 87 percent, target-date funds spread from about half of plan menus to 90 percent, and index funds now hold 42 percent of plan assets. For 403(b) sponsors wondering how their plan compares, the benchmarks just got a refresh.

The deadline depends on what the amendment does. Most plans adopting optional features under SECURE and SECURE 2.0 must update their documents by December 31, 2026. Required changes follow a different schedule tied to IRS guidance and the agency's annual Required Amendments lists, and later deadlines apply to certain union-negotiated plans, governmental plans, and public school 403(b) plans. These are deadlines for updating plan documents, not permission to delay following rules already in effect. One wrinkle from the IRS's September clarification helps sponsors: if the IRS later issues guidance about an optional feature a plan has already adopted, the further amendment implementing that guidance gets its own, later deadline. The IRS expects to issue final regulations on automatic enrollment, long-term part-time workers, and required minimum distributions, and the Roth catch-up requirement is expected to join the 2027 list, pushing that amendment deadline to December 31, 2029.

Milliman turns this month's IRS clarification into a plan-by-plan checklist. The dividing line is whether an amendment is required or discretionary. Optional SECURE and SECURE 2.0 features a plan has already put into operation, such as letting participants take employer contributions as Roth, generally must be reflected in a plan amendment by December 31, 2026, under Notice 2024-2's extension, with more time for collectively bargained, governmental, and public school 403(b) plans. Required amendments follow the annual Required Amendments List and often land later: the Roth catch-up requirement is expected on the 2027 list, making its deadline generally December 31, 2029. The forward calendar matters too. Automatic enrollment, long-term part-time, and remaining minimum-distribution requirements will each be listed only after final regulations, which are not expected to apply earlier than the plan year starting six months after they are issued. The near-term task for calendar-year plans is an inventory of optional features already in operation, because those carry the year-end 2026 date.

An employee eligible for a distribution from a former employer's employee stock ownership plan can generally roll it into a 403(b) plan, the experts from Groom Law Group and CAPTRUST write, because an ESOP is a qualified plan and its eligible rollover distributions can move into a 403(b) that accepts rollovers under its terms. They add one caution. A distribution that includes employer securities can carry different tax consequences than a cash rollover, so the employee may want tax advice before moving the money. Administrators should check what the plan document actually says about which rollovers it accepts.

Williams Mullen extends its year-end checklist series to governmental and church plans outside ERISA. Amendment deadlines depend on the type of plan and the change involved: for many nongovernmental plans, amendments documenting optional SECURE and SECURE 2.0 features already in use are due December 31, 2026, while required amendments can have later deadlines and governmental plans generally have additional time, a distinction the [IRS clarified this month](https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USIRS/bulletins/42b06be). Sponsors should document operational changes now so the eventual amendment matches how the plan actually works. The Roth catch-up requirement for participants whose prior-year FICA wages topped $150,000 applies for 2026 and rewards a payroll-system check. Also on the list: the IRS now issues determination letters for individually designed 403(b) plans, and the 2023 proposed forfeiture regulations, which generally require defined contribution forfeitures to be used within 12 months after the close of the plan year in which they arise, can be relied on now.

The Senate voted 50 to 49 to advance the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, short of the 60 votes needed. Retirement industry groups had hoped to attach legislation allowing 403(b) plans to offer collective investment trusts. PLANSPONSOR reports that the failed vote and the limited time left before the midterms make passage through that bill look unlikely this Congress.

The question plan sponsors have been asking, answered from the source. Discretionary SECURE and SECURE 2.0 amendments, the features a plan chose to adopt, must be adopted by December 31, 2026, the Notice 2024-2 deadline, now about three and a half months away. Required amendments run on a different clock: generally the end of the second calendar year after the provision lands on the IRS's annual Required Amendments List. Collectively bargained plans, governmental plans and public-school 403(b) plans get later dates. The article also previews what will land on future Required Amendments Lists, including final rules on automatic enrollment, long-term part-time employees and required minimum distributions, each carrying its own two-year amendment window. The task between now and year-end is sorting every adopted feature into the right column.

Pretax 403(b) deferrals are excluded from current federal taxable income, but state and local rules can differ, and deferrals may be taxed at contribution in some jurisdictions. Groom Law Group's experts and CAPTRUST's Michael Webb treat the question as a reminder to check the applicable jurisdiction before telling a participant that a contribution is excluded from taxable wages.

One CPI month remains and the projections have stabilized. Milliman projects a $25,500 elective deferral limit for 401(k), 403(b), and 457 plans, up $1,000, with an $8,500 catch-up and an $11,750 super catch-up for ages 60 to 63. The defined contribution annual additions cap lands at $75,000, the defined benefit maximum annuity at $300,000, the compensation limit at $375,000, and the HCE threshold at $170,000. The forecast runs on actual fiscal-year CPI through August 31, with trailing CPI-U at 3.4 percent, leaving one month of data between these projections and the official figures the IRS typically announces in late October or early November.

After House Democratic leadership built an August 31 press conference around affordability—groceries, gas, healthcare—the Insured Retirement Institute wrote to argue that retirement belongs on the list. The letter distills IRI's broader agenda to four asks: an auto-IRA mandate for employers without plans plus a triennial re-enrollment safe harbor and eligibility at 18; wider guaranteed lifetime income access, including annuities inside QDIAs and expanded QLAC eligibility; collective investment trusts for 403(b) plans; and simplified rollovers with in-service distributions to individual retirement annuities at 50.

Fidelity's second-quarter analysis found 401(k) and 403(b) balances grew 10.5% last quarter, the strongest quarterly growth since the end of 2020, driven by record participant savings rates alongside market gains.

The Insured Retirement Institute urged the Senate to take up the Retirement Fairness for Charities and Educational Institutions Act, which would give 403(b) plan participants access to collective investment trusts, an option long available to 401(k) plans at lower cost than comparable mutual funds.

Groom Law Group and CAPTRUST experts answer the question. The Saver's Match is voluntary for 403(b) plans, not required. Eligible low- and moderate-income savers can receive a federal matching contribution of up to $1,000 for taxable years beginning after December 31, 2026, and plans that choose to accept the deposits will need amendments and new administrative procedures under Notice 2026-48.

Experts from Groom Law Group and CAPTRUST answer questions concerning retirement plan administration and regulations.

Experts from Groom Law Group and CAPTRUST answer a practical question on the timing of 403(b) restatements and SECURE 2.0 amendments.

Continuing his close read of the DOL's proposed regulation on selecting investments for participant-directed plans, Reish examines the complexity factor among the six the proposal defines for evaluating any investment, alternative assets included, in 401(k) and private-sector 403(b) lineups.

Witnesses testifying before a Senate panel urged lawmakers to pass legislation allowing 403(b) plans to invest in CITs. They also expressed support (and caution) for the DOL's Investment Selection Rule.

In Havlik, the University of Chicago rejected a beneficiary change form that would have redirected an ERISA-qualified Section 403(b) retirement plan participant’s benefits from his spouse to trusts, and the Seventh Circuit looked to state law to decide whether the power of attorney was valid to waive the spousal benefit.

Experts from Groom Law Group and CAPTRUST answer questions concerning retirement plan administration and regulations.

The DOL’s proposed regulation on selecting investments, including alternative assets, 2026-06178.pdf, identifies six factors that should be considered in the process of selecting any investments for participant-directed plans, such as 401(k) plans and private sector 403(b) plans.

Operational bottlenecks are drawing renewed scrutiny as Congress considers opening the $1 trillion 403(b) market to collective investment trusts.

Experts from Groom Law Group and CAPTRUST answer questions concerning retirement plan administration and regulations.

Changes in plan design, coupled with regulatory improvements and market evolution, mean concerns about collective investment trusts should no longer keep them from 403(b) plans.

The DOL’s proposed regulation on selecting investments, including alternative assets, 2026-06178.pdf, identifies six factors that should be considered in the process of selecting any investments for participant-directed plans, such as 401(k) plans and private sector 403(b) plans.

The deadline to adopt a restated pre-approved 403(b) plan is rapidly approaching. Here's what employers need to know.

F.4th —-, 2026 WL 2084784 (7th Cir. July 20, 2026), a suit for ERISA benefits, the Seventh Circuit affirmed summary judgment for the University of Chicago, its two Section 403(b) retirement plans, and TIAA, the plans’ recordkeeper, holding that a power of attorney lacking express authority to waive spousal annuity rights could not effect the change.

Today’s retirement plans (401(k), 403(b), defined benefit pension plans, etc.) are growing ever more sophisticated, offering plan participants more features and options for increased retirement savings.

Congress is once again considering legislation that would allow 403(b) retirement plans to invest in Collective Investment Trusts (CITs).

CEOs send letter to Senate Banking Committee asking for movement on House-passed bipartisan bill that would finally permit access intended by SECURE 2.0

If your organization sponsors a pre-approved 403(b) plan, an important compliance deadline looms on the horizon.

Experts from Groom Law Group and CAPTRUST answer questions concerning retirement plan administration and regulations.

New PEP underscores commitment to scaling pooled plans and expanding retirement access for nonprofits; Newport tabbed as pooled plan provider and administrative fiduciary while Aprio providing