BENEFITS DIGEST

Proposed regulations issued in August spell out how employers can make tax-free contributions to employees' Trump Accounts, beginning with a separate written plan document. Warner Norcross walks through the ground rules. Contributions are capped at $2,500 per employee per year no matter how many children an employee has, the cap counts both direct employer dollars and cafeteria-plan elections, and amounts get reported on the W-2. Employers cannot steer workers to a preferred custodian, so contributions may flow to many institutions, and the Labor Department has said these plans generally sit outside ERISA because the benefits belong to the children rather than the employees. A public hearing is set for October 15, and employers may rely on the proposal immediately.

DCIIA's 2026 Data Dashboard counts nearly 1.1 million defined contribution plans holding $14.5 trillion for 148 million participants, and projects almost 1.3 million plans by 2031. The sobering number inside the growth story is leakage. For every dollar entering the DC system this year, more than seven dollars will roll out to IRAs.

Average self-directed brokerage account balances climbed 8.7% to nearly $397,000 in the second quarter as trading activity picked up. Millennials posted the strongest year-over-year growth at 19.5%, and NVIDIA held the top stock position for a fifth consecutive quarter.

The Plan Sponsor Council of America asked sponsors whether they will amend their plans to accept Saver's Match contributions when the federal match arrives for tax year 2027. About 36% are considering it, 47% say no, mostly because their workforces out-earn the income caps, and 16% had never heard of it.

Conference speakers argue employers can use Trump Accounts to help workers overcome hesitation about investing, positioning the accounts as an on-ramp for employees who have never participated in a workplace plan.

A PGIM manager makes the industry case that private credit's long-term structure aligns with retirement investors' horizons, the latest in the push to move private assets into defined contribution menus.

401(k) Specialist digs into Fidelity's second-quarter numbers and finds strong gains for women and Millennial savers, along with growing interest in small business retirement plans.

IFEBP walks through contribution program design under the proposed regulations, covering payroll deductions, the written plan requirement, employer contribution limits, and implementation considerations for sponsors weighing a program.

A layoff can quietly trigger a 401(k) problem. If employer-initiated turnover hits 20% in a plan year, the IRS presumes a partial plan termination, and everyone affected becomes fully vested in employer contributions no matter what the vesting schedule says. Troutman warns that a multi-year phased RIF can stretch the measurement period, that some voluntary quits connected to the RIF count too, and that missing one of these invites participant lawsuits and IRS or DOL audits. Worth reading before the workforce decision is final, not after.

The Retirement Learning Center addresses what happens to outstanding 401(k) loan balances when employees arrive through a merger or acquisition, a recurring administration question in deal integration.

Bradley walks employers through the proposed Section 128 regulations with a decision focus, whether to sponsor a contribution program at all. One point worth the click, employers generally may rely on the proposed rules now, for plan years beginning before final regulations are issued, so drafting the written plan document can start today.

New Vanguard research finds 80% of participants under 35 hold only a target-date or balanced fund, versus 43% of those 55 and older, and the share of all participants using a single fund jumped from 46% in 2016 to 66% in 2025. Menus keep shrinking in response, though Vanguard cautions that participants nearing retirement may still benefit from a broader lineup.

The proposal landed on August 20, and this new write-up explains why sponsors should welcome it. The current anti-abuse rule for mid-year amendments is so broad it can catch ordinary benefit improvements; the proposal narrows it to amendments that front-load costs out of proportion to the benefit. The package also lets sponsors adopt retroactive benefit increases up to the tax filing deadline, and plans may rely on the proposed rules immediately, so the planning opportunities start now.

Three SEC rulemakings went to the White House for review in the last week of August, and all three target October release. One would reform executive compensation disclosure, following Chairman Atkins' push to simplify the regime. Another carries a title worth reading twice, rescission of Rule 14a-8's federal regulation of shareholder proposals, which suggests a rethink of the shareholder proposal system rather than a tune-up. Public companies should expect a different-looking proxy season.

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 firm's quarterly update covers the quarter ended June 30. The lead item for benefits readers is the May 5 SEC staff guidance on pooled employer plans, in which the staff said it will not object if PEPs rely on the securities-law exemptions widely applicable to tax-qualified retirement plans and confirmed that employers offering their own securities through a PEP may use a Form S-8 registration statement. The update also notes the SEC's inflation adjustment raising the qualified client thresholds effective June 29.

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.

An opinion piece examines how frequent job changes expose participants to what the author calls plan churn, the accumulation of small accounts, cash-outs, and lost momentum that follows each move between employer plans, and argues the problem deserves more attention from plan sponsors and recordkeepers than it gets.

Two sets of proposed regulations address how employer-sponsored Trump Account contribution programs will operate and how account assets may be invested before a beneficiary turns 18. Seyfarth walks through the requirements, including a separate written plan document, a $2,500 per-employee cap on tax-favored Section 128 contributions, cafeteria plan elections for employee pre-tax contributions to dependents' accounts, and nondiscrimination testing that tracks the dependent care FSA rules. Contributions default to an S&P 500 index ETF with ESG index funds off the table, and open questions remain, from tracking eligible dependents to coordinating contributions across a controlled group.

TrumpIRA.gov, the website powering the new Trump IRA savings accounts, is officially live, giving families and employers their first operational look at enrollment and account details for the program.

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation has relaunched its opinion letter program, giving employers, plan sponsors, unions, and practitioners a channel to ask the agency's Office of the General Counsel how Title IV of ERISA applies to specific situations. Requests may be submitted anonymously through counsel, opinions bind only the requester, and the program excludes matters in litigation, coverage determinations, and issues pending in rulemaking. The agency's first opinion letter since 2002 issued in June, finding that annuity buyouts of frozen plan participants do not trigger section 4043 reporting.

Field Assistance Bulletin 2026-01 made late deposits of employee deferrals and loan repayments a DOL enforcement priority, and the agency is mining Form 5500 filings to find them. Small plans must deposit within seven business days of withholding; larger plans must deposit as soon as amounts can reasonably be segregated, typically two to three business days, with the fifteenth business day an emergency outer limit rather than a deadline. Ferenczy recommends written deposit procedures and prompt engagement with the Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program when deposits slip.

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.

Section 103 of SECURE 2.0 replaces the Saver's Credit with a matching contribution from the federal government, and its implementation raises a series of decisions for plan sponsors. Seyfarth surveys the open questions about how the new match will operate.

Sixty-one percent of participants on Vanguard's recordkeeping platform held a single target-date fund in 2025, up from 46 percent in 2016, and 66 percent held just one fund of any kind. Vanguard credits automatic enrollment, which nearly 80 percent of large plans now use, and target-date defaults for the simplification.

Rosenbaum's warning to plan sponsors borrows from Breaking Bad. The greatest threat to a 401(k) plan is often not an outside vendor or a plaintiffs' lawyer but the sponsor itself, and fiduciary discipline starts with recognizing it.

The kitchenware retailer is funneling $10 million toward the retirement accounts of workers who helped it navigate tariffs while also reimbursing vendors for discounts.

Seyfarth reviews the IRS's latest proposed Trump Account guidance, which addresses employer contribution programs and the eligible-investment rules confining account assets to low-fee, broad-market index funds during a beneficiary's childhood.

Treasury and the IRS have issued proposed rules addressing the opening and administration of Trump Accounts, employer contribution programs, and eligible investments during a beneficiary's childhood.

The agency raised rates that pension plans and multiemployer plans use for valuation and funding purposes.

Estimated competitive retiree buyout cost, as a percentage of accounting liability, increased by 10 basis points from 99.6% to 99.7% during July.

Products must innovate within the fiduciary framework. The fiduciary framework should not be diluted to accommodate products.

One of the biggest misconceptions among plan sponsors is that providing required notices and disclosures means employees understand their retirement plan.

A new report by the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies examining the retirement prospects of the middle class finds them feeling positive but stressed over competing financial priorities.

Cooley adds the timing read on the SEC's executive compensation disclosure proposal now at OIRA. The office's review often takes a fraction of its allotted 90 days, so a formal proposal could surface within weeks.

Under current rollover regulations, plan administrators may prescribe any reasonable procedure for a distributee to elect a direct rollover and may impose reasonable requirements for a distributee to provide information or documentation to facilitate the rollover.

Section 324 of the SECURE 2.0 Act directs Treasury to issue sample forms, procedures, and protocols that make rollovers easier to complete and more consistent across plans.

Proposed regulations under section 530A would confine Trump Account investments during the growth period to unleveraged index funds that track broad U.S. equity benchmarks and charge annual fees of 0.1% or less, excluding actively managed, sector, and ESG-labeled funds. Employers contributing to the accounts bear no fiduciary duty for investment selection but should confirm contributions flow to compliant accounts. Comments are due October 20.

Washington's state-facilitated retirement savings program is scheduled to open in July 2027.

Review of 31 retirement plan service providers finds few explicitly restrict participant data sharing for marketing, prompting GAO to call for stronger DOL privacy guidance.

Most employee complaints involve relatively minor issues. Questions about vacation time, payroll, benefits, or workplace policies are common in every organization.

On August 26, 2026, the SEC submitted a rule proposal titled "Executive Compensation Disclosure Reform" to the White House's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. SEC rulemaking initiatives under review by OIRA are listed on a dashboard until the review is completed.

Plan sponsors of qualified defined contribution plans such as 401(k) plans must update their pre-approved plans every six years to reflect law changes and to maintain their pre-approved status with the IRS. Boutwell Fay walks through what the fourth remedial amendment cycle requires and the timing sponsors should be planning around.

Milliman reviews the IRS's recent communications on direct rollovers for qualified DB and DC plans, with recommendations, procedures, and next steps for plan sponsors.

The IRS recently released Notice 2026-49, proposing sample forms and a standardized five-step process for rollovers to eligible retirement plans under Section 324 of the SECURE 2.0 Act.

On August 20, 2026, Treasury and the IRS published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would significantly modify the minimum funding rules for single-employer defined benefit pension plans under Code section 430, including a new anti-abuse rule.

Milliman reviews key provisions of the proposed IRS regulations that would modify how single-employer DB plans determine their minimum funding requirements.

Transamerica Institute study shows financial pressures are eating into middle-class workers' ability to save, and prompting them to work longer.

Transamerica Institute finds more middle-class workers expect to fund retirement through 401(k)s and other savings, but financial pressures could derail those plans.

The ERISA consultants at the Retirement Learning Center address a question about liquidating a stable value investment in a client's 401(k) plan, and the market value adjustment and fiduciary liability issues the move can trigger.

The August Monthly Minute reminds plan sponsors of the upcoming SECURE 2.0 plan amendment deadline and highlights a Fourth Circuit decision reflecting the litigation impact of a delayed ERISA appeal determination.

While the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) establishes baseline disclosure requirements, a well drafted SPD will go beyond those basic requirements and can play a much broader role in plan administration.

Milliman walks through how pension plans should handle uncashed benefit checks, a recurring administrative problem that carries real fiduciary, financial, and regulatory consequences.

As companies across major sectors continue to announce significant reductions in force, Troutman Pepper Locke examines the retirement plan consequences that can follow a shrinking workforce, and the compliance issues plan sponsors should be watching before the next round of cuts.

With the majority of large corporate DB plans now in surplus territory, Milliman lays out strategies for preserving that surplus and options for putting the excess funds to work.

One of the most important features of Trump accounts is that they must be invested a certain way during the period before January 1 of the year the child turns age 18.

Milliman explains why the PBGC’s new Coverage Assessment Program matters especially for professional service firms, whose defined benefit plans often sit under unique coverage rules.

New NIRS survey shows deepening concerns about retirement viability in current economy, plus a distrust of AI financial advice and crypto investments.

In Technical Release 2026-02, the DOL concluded that Section 530A accounts and employer contribution programs generally are not ERISA-covered pension plans when employers keep a neutral, administrative role. To stay outside ERISA, employers should avoid endorsing particular providers, influencing investment decisions, imposing conditions on account use beyond what the tax code requires, or receiving compensation. Verrill's takeaway is that the guidance clears a major compliance concern for employers weighing 530A contributions, while ERISA risk still turns on program design, communication, and administration.

A new report finds that executive benefits are evolving beyond traditional retention and attraction strategies as employers face delayed retirements, economic volatility, and leadership continuity challenges.

Trump Accounts are a new tax-favored, IRA-style savings vehicle that may be established for eligible children by an authorized individual, such as a parent, legal guardian, or grandparent, and may receive federal, family, and employer contributions.

When plan sponsors think about retirement plan risk, they often focus on investment committees, financial advisors, or highly compensated executives. In reality, the employee who creates the greatest risk to a retirement plan is often someone far less visible.

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

More than one-quarter of surveyed Generation Z investors said they used sports betting as part of a long-term investing strategy, according to Betterment.

New research finds managed account users generally have higher contribution rates and are more likely to earn their full employer match, with the biggest differences in voluntary enrollment plans.

Many households do not have enough saved to maintain their standard of living in retirement. This resource gap means that retirees will often have to cut back on consumption and, in some cases, rely on their adult children for financial support.

As a reminder, the minimum funding rules under Section 430 establish how much an employer must contribute to a defined benefit pension plan each year to avoid excise tax penalties and satisfy related funding requirements.

Cash balance plans grew by 1,025% over two decades, according to an Ascensus report.

The Treasury Department recently issued proposed regulations providing long-awaited guidance on employer contributions to Trump Accounts under Internal Revenue Code Section 128.

The IRS issued a proposal outlining the acceptable investments for Trump Accounts. The proposal covers fees, foreign investments, ESG funds, and other investment management issues.

The retirement industry may be overdue for a "reintroduction."

The DOL's proposed regulation on selecting investments, including alternative assets, identifies six factors relevant to selecting investments for participant-directed plans such as 401(k)s; this post is the second in a series examining those factors, focusing on performance benchmarking.

With the IRS set to issue letters on August 31, we recap key deadlines for some defined contribution plans.

The Pension Protection Act (PPA) didn't invent automatic enrollment, target-date funds, or professional investment management. But it was arguably a transformative shift in the design of workplace retirement plans, and the focus of those who support them.

The IRS on Aug. 19 issued proposed regulations that would modify rules for the minimum funding requirement applicable to single-employer defined benefit plans.

"Any successful business has needs that 401(k) plans and traditional group benefits are not built to solve. It's a unique itch that nonqualified plans can scratch."

Recent Treasury guidance resolved several tax and compliance issues, but benefits advisers say administration details may shape adoption.

Internal Revenue Code Section 409(p) (Section 409(p)) imposes significant obligations on S corporation Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) with severe penalties for noncompliance.

TD Bank survey finds 75% of Americans have delayed at least one major milestone because of their finances, with Gen Z feeling the greatest impact.

Industries with historically low plan participation rates and hourly employees are seeing particularly large gains in coverage, according to Gusto.

Treasury and the IRS proposed rules defining what a Trump Account can hold before the beneficiary turns 18: generally an unleveraged mutual fund or ETF tracking a broad U.S. equity index such as the S&P 500, charging no more than 0.1 percent in annual fees, with the trustee selecting a default fund when no election is made. The August 11 rules told employers what they may contribute; this one tells trustees what the money may sit in. Comments are due October 20, 2026.

The Prudent Investment Fiduciary Rules blog proposes a quantitative framework for documenting fiduciary prudence, combining cost-comparison metrics with AI-assisted process tools. Dense, but of interest to committees formalizing their prudence files.

Boutwell Fay's walkthrough of the August 11 employer-contribution proposed regulations for Trump Accounts, the third set of rules for the new accounts, with the nondiscrimination overlay plan sponsors will actually administer.

Hall Benefits Law's half-year policy roundup names four developments: the DOL's proposed safe harbor for fiduciaries selecting 401(k) investments, EBSA's shift to fewer but more participant-focused enforcement interactions, SEC moves to streamline executive compensation disclosure by company size, and EBSA's technical release that ERISA Title I generally does not apply to Trump Accounts. A mixed but useful mid-year checkpoint for benefits and executive compensation practice.

Foley's reminder that years of CARES, SECURE, and SECURE 2.0 operation may not yet be reflected in plan documents: when operations, communications, and the document diverge, the amendment deadline is the cleanup moment. A practical December 31 checklist starter.

A Gusto report finds retirement benefits are becoming more common, particularly in states with automatic IRA programs.

Treasury’s latest guidance answered key compliance questions, advisers say, but employers are now figuring out how to administer the new benefit.

Proposed regulations would limit investments during a child’s growth period to low-cost, non-leveraged equity index funds and ETFs, with annual fees capped at 0.1%.

Trump Accounts will help eligible children “enjoy years of compound earnings for their future college, retirement and other needs,” an IRS leader said.

Employees’ reasons for delaying retirement included the cost of living, not earning enough and a lack of savings.

Retirement plan sponsors should be aware of a new rollover process proposed by the IRS pursuant to Notice 2026-49 (the “Notice”) intended to streamline the process of direct rollovers to or from a retirement plan.

In this week's edition, the ERISA consultants at the Retirement Learning Center (RLC) address how a plan corrects a payroll error for a participant who elected to make voluntary after-tax contributions to the plan, but the contributions were not withheld.

Rosenbaum reframes the dreaded participant complaint as an early-warning system: a missing contribution or access problem surfaced by a participant is a fix-it-now opportunity before it becomes a DOL inquiry or a claim.

Allianz finds 72 percent of parents saving for retirement are confident in reaching their goals against 54 percent of adults without children, a gap the study attributes to structure and planning habits.

Eversheds Sutherland works through the August 11 proposed regulations on Trump Account employer contribution programs and the parallel DCAP nondiscrimination rules, a law-firm companion to the consultant takes already in this run.

ARA's read of the Gusto payroll data covered here Wednesday: small-business plan offering up from 19 to 31 percent since 2019, led by industries and hourly workforces that historically went without.

The Slott Report maps the fork in the road between Roth IRA and Roth 401(k) distribution rules, a useful desk reference as mandatory Roth catch-ups push more plan money into Roth accounts.

The fifth installment of the firm's executive-pay series covers the contractual frame from hiring through departure: employment agreements, severance design, and the Dodd-Frank clawback rules now binding on all listed companies.

PBGC filed a comment letter supporting FASB's proposal to discount qualifying market return cash balance obligations at the plan's assumed interest crediting rate. An accounting change rather than a compliance obligation, but one that would move reported pension obligations for hybrid plans.

Groom and CAPTRUST experts field a plan-administration question with a trap in it: how mandatory employee contributions count against the section 415 annual additions limit.

Rosenbaum argues the first fifteen minutes of a DOL investigation tell the examiner how a plan is really run, and walks through the housekeeping that signals a well-governed plan before anyone opens the investment lineup.

Just 19 percent of small businesses offered a retirement plan in 2019. That figure is 31 percent in 2026, per Gusto's payroll data, with the biggest gains among hourly workers and the smallest employers. The SECURE incentives and state mandates are visibly working.

Segal breaks down the proposed employer-contribution rules for Trump Accounts: the cafeteria-plan interaction, the nondiscrimination testing overlay, and what benefits committees should be scoping before the rules finalize.

A pensions specialist on why stale actuarial assumptions and mortality tables are fiduciary exposure, after a recent ruling found outdated data can violate ERISA. Fiduciary responsibility extends past investment oversight and into plan math.

Target-date assets are positioned for another leg of growth as demand shifts toward personalization and retirement-income features. A companion data point to the $5.3 trillion TDF market coverage in Tuesday's issue.

Rosenbaum's warning on PEO 401(k) arrangements: joining a professional employer organization's plan is easy, and extracting your plan and its assets later is not. What to check before checking in.

With the mandatory Roth catch-up regime live for participants who earned over $150,000 in prior-year FICA wages, Lyndsey Barnett walks through the correction framework when a high earner's catch-up contributions land pre-tax by mistake. Timing matters: errors caught before W-2 filing are fixed by transferring the funds and correcting wage reporting, later discoveries require an in-plan Roth rollover with 2026 errors corrected by December 31, 2027, and no correction is generally required if the erroneous amount is $250 or less.

The Northern District of Georgia preliminarily approved a $47.7 million settlement of claims by roughly 189 former NCR executives and their beneficiaries over a top hat plan. Groom's lesson for nonqualified plans: section 409A compliance does not excuse departing from what the plan document promises.

A Minnesota federal judge allowed target-date imprudence and self-dealing claims against 3M to proceed after finding the amended complaint's Fidelity Freedom fund comparison a meaningful benchmark, while narrowing other theories. The suit was dismissed this spring with leave to amend for exactly this deficiency, so the ruling shows what a benchmark allegation that works actually looks like.

Thompson Hine works through the proposed regulations' answers to the open Trump Accounts questions, most significantly how salary-reduction contributions run through section 125 cafeteria plans, plus the nondiscrimination testing rules employers have been waiting on.

The companion analysis: for the first time, comprehensive regulatory guidance on dependent care assistance program nondiscrimination testing under section 129, including the 55 percent average-benefits test that has run on informal practice for decades.

IRS Announcement 2026-15 gives employers using preapproved defined contribution plans until September 30, 2028 to adopt newly approved documents for the fourth remedial amendment cycle. Mercer maps the dates plan sponsors and document providers need on the calendar.

Mayer Brown makes the affirmative case for collective investment trusts in defined contribution plans: how CITs are regulated, why their costs run lower than comparable mutual funds, and what fiduciaries should document when adopting them.

Twenty years after the Pension Protection Act made target-date funds the default, Sway Research maps a $5.3 trillion TDF market shifting toward collective investment trusts and retirement-income features.

Plan sponsors seeking IRS sign-off on individual plan questions get a simpler road: new Form 15662 standardizes private letter ruling requests, pay.gov filing opens August 26, and paper submissions end September 4. Worth knowing before your next plan design question needs a ruling.

Rising discount rates cut liabilities faster than muted equity returns could offset, pushing corporate pension funded status to a 2026 high in July.

Bloomberg Law reports early signals that small employers will be slow to add Trump Account contributions even as the proposed rules clear a path, with practitioners pointing to an administrative load that outweighs the $2,500 draw for many.

The Slott team on the administrative requirements employers must meet to contribute to Trump accounts, and why small employers in particular may find the compliance load heavier than the $2,500 benefit suggests.

Fred Reish's series on the DOL's alternative-assets proposal reaches the performance-benchmark factor: what the proposed regulation would require fiduciaries to consider when benchmarking alternatives inside participant-directed plans.

A third pass at the CRR small-business research the Digest has followed: misperceptions rather than economics drive the coverage gap, which makes education the intervention.

A new IRIC white paper argues sponsors can help participants break the psychological barrier between saving and spending. The behavioral half of the decumulation problem.

A Zety survey finds a fifth of Gen X workers expect never to retire, with rising costs and inflation the leading culprits.

Less is not more when drafting summary plan descriptions. Cohen & Buckmann walks through a new decision penalizing a plan for omitting important details from its SPD, and argues comprehensiveness is a fiduciary baseline rather than a drafting preference.

Multiemployer plans' aggregate funded position reached 106 percent at midyear, a recent-history high. Healthier funds change the withdrawal-liability settlement calculus on both sides of the table.

Human Resources Director's employer-facing walkthrough of the Trump Accounts proposed regulations: contribution mechanics, the nondiscrimination overlay, and what payroll teams should be scoping now.

Rosenbaum pushes back on the idea that benchmarking means hunting the lowest-cost provider: the fiduciary obligation is a documented process weighing services against fees, and the cheapest option can be the wrong answer.

Boutwell Fay's FAQ on the section 4960 excise tax for tax-exempt employers: who counts as a covered employee, how the $1 million threshold and parachute rules interact, and the traps for organizations with related entities.

PLANADVISER's take on Wednesday's rollover guidance, which led yesterday's Digest: electronic transfers and standardized forms for moving retirement savings between plans would be encouraged under the proposed procedures.

A second read on the SECURE 2.0 section 324 rollover package, with attention to the four sample forms and what recordkeepers will need to change to support direct electronic transfers.

NAPA's advisor-facing angle on the same guidance: what standardized rollover procedures would mean for plan-to-plan transfers and the participants who currently abandon rollovers midway.

Mayer Brown's analysis of Monday's proposed regulations: the up-to-$2,500 tax-free employer contribution to Trump Accounts, the workplace-program nondiscrimination and reporting requirements, and the first formal guidance on the 55 percent average-benefits test for dependent care assistance programs.

A pilot becomes policy: employers considering a defined benefit plan can now ask PBGC for a coverage determination before establishing the plan, removing a source of uncertainty for church-affiliated, professional-service, and Puerto Rico plan sponsors.

Principal's latest financial-health index finds employers and employees converging on two trends: workers postponing retirement dates and both sides leaning on AI tools for planning.

the mid-year checkpoint for sponsors budgeting next year's contribution and compensation limits.

PLANSPONSOR digs into the Boston College CRR small-business study the Digest featured Wednesday: the barriers to plan adoption reflect misperceptions and information gaps rather than insurmountable economics.

Financial Finesse research suggests employees approaching retirement who engage with virtual financial wellness programs are significantly more likely to take key planning actions and improve retirement readiness.

relevant context for rollover conversations.

If a pooled employer plan absorbs the lion's share of fiduciary and administrative responsibility, what role remains for the advisor? NAPA argues the answer is a redefinition, not a reduction.

and why plan sponsors should treat cross-selling as a fiduciary-oversight item.

Technology, participant expectations, and advisor demand are pulling 401(k)s out of their traditional silos toward holistic planning that connects workplace accounts to broader wealth management.

a workforce-planning number as much as a benefits one.

The Slott team untangles a perennial confusion: how the five-year holding period actually applies when a saver has made multiple Roth conversions in different years.

the gap to watch as alts push toward DC menus.

Part four of the firm's executive-pay series reaches section 280G: how golden-parachute payments trigger the excise tax, the shareholder-approval escape hatch for private companies, and the planning that has to happen before a deal is on the table.

Starting this year, employers can contribute to an employee's or dependent's Trump account tax free, up to a combined $2,500 per year (inflation-adjusted after 2027) under a contribution program. Groom's walk-through of this week's proposed regulations.

PLANSPONSOR's coverage of Notice 2026-49: new guidance would encourage electronic transfers and standardized forms for moving retirement savings between plans.

NAPA's take on this week's proposal guiding employers on implementing a Trump Account contribution program, a third voice alongside the primary text and the Groom explainer.

Groom's Q&A-format read of Notice 2026-48 and what it signals about the forthcoming Saver's Match proposed regulations.

Hiring a third-party administrator does not transfer responsibility for operating a retirement plan. Rosenbaum on the most common post-compliance-problem surprise he hears from plan sponsors, and where TPA reliance actually ends.

The adviser-side angle on the proposed regulations: pre-tax payroll deductions similar to health savings accounts, though other vehicles may offer better benefits for some families.