BENEFITS DIGEST

Mayer Brown unpacks a September 18 IRS Employee Plans newsletter correcting the widespread assumption that every SECURE and SECURE 2.0 amendment is due December 31, 2026. Under the newsletter as the firm reads it, discretionary changes a plan has already put into operation generally do need amendments by the end of 2026, while many required amendments come due only after the relevant provision lands on an IRS Required Amendments List, with later dates generally applying to collectively bargained and governmental plans. A separate [Notice 2026-33](https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-26-33.pdf) extends the deadline for optional qualified long-term-care distribution amendments to December 31, 2027. The firm’s practical point is to track the document deadline and the operational compliance date separately.

The Foundation’s answer to the recurring question of when SECURE 2.0 amendments are due is an inventory, not a single date. Amendments on the IRS 2024 Required Amendments List are generally due December 31, 2026, the 2025 list generally runs to December 31, 2027, and certain collectively bargained and governmental plans have until the end of 2028 and 2029. Discretionary changes follow their own timing, and operating in compliance now matters independently of when the plan document catches up.

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.

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.

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.

A year-end checklist for the nonprofit and governmental slice of the audience. It covers amendment deadlines (December 31, 2026 for most qualified plans; governmental plans get until 2029), the Roth catch-up requirement for employees with more than $150,000 in prior-year FICA wages from the sponsoring employer, the new paper benefit-statement requirement for ERISA plans, and year-end tax decisions for certain deferred compensation arrangements. One distinction to carry into the review: amendments documenting optional changes already in use are on the year-end clock, while required amendments may have later deadlines.

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.

Written for public plans but useful to any defined benefit sponsor nearing the finish line. With the aggregate state pension funded ratio at 78.8 percent for fiscal 2025, up from 76.7 percent a year earlier, more systems are within sight of full funding, and Segal's point is that arriving is not the same as being done. The roadmap holds four disciplines. Assumptions get set for long-term stability rather than surplus-flattering optimism. Contribution rates get a glide path for the cliff that arrives when the amortization payments drop off. Benefit enhancements meet the caution the pre-2000 bull market taught, and asset allocation gets recalibrated for negative cash flow, with less in illiquid holdings.

The Commission proposes rescinding the 2010 pay-to-play rule, Advisers Act Rule 206(4)-5, which bars advisers from providing compensated advisory services to government clients for two years after covered political contributions. Chairman Atkins calls the rule overly prescriptive and would leave political contribution policing to state and local law. Comments run for 60 days after Federal Register publication, and advisers to public retirement plans are the audience most directly affected.

Why did public pension plans take alternatives from 14% to 39% of their risky assets over two decades? The Center for Retirement Research finds the driver was belief rather than desperation. Consultant recommendations and peer behavior explain the shift, funding status and return targets barely register, and a 10 point rise in neighboring plans' alternative allocations predicts a 7.2 point rise in a plan's own.

How Texas HB 198 and HB 4144 affect municipalities, first responder health benefits, cancer screenings, and retiree illness protection.

Learn why cybersecurity now belongs in the boardroom and what public pension trustees should be asking about governance.

CMS reopened the HHS-administered federal external review process effective July 31 after a month of unavailability. Consumers whose deadline to request external review fell between July 1 and August 3 now have until October 2, 2026 to file. Relevant to plans that elected the HHS process (AL, FL, GA, WI, TX and territories) and self-insured non-federal governmental plans with live claim appeals.

The December 31, 2026 deadline is fast approaching for most non-governmental plan sponsors to amend their tax-qualified retirement plans to comply with changes made by the SECURE Act of 2019, the CARES Act, the Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Relief Act of 2021, and the Secure 2.0 Act (the “Acts”).

Large slices of public pension portfolios are reported at manager estimates rather than market prices, and the author argues that real valuation and reporting standards are overdue.

From 2008 to 2012, while serving as a Kentucky Retirement Systems trustee, I was not allowed to know the names of the underlying hedge funds inside three hedge fund-of-funds managers.

A new academic report provides unusually strong evidence for a central argument made in both the our investigation of Ohio STRS and our broader CalPERS report: public-pension compensation systems can reward staff for an internally manufactured version of performance that is materially better than the pension’s

The venture capital firm, California’s public pension fund and other investors are reportedly paying $2.8 billion for the asset manager.