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DWC |

Decoding the Alphabet Soup: What’s With All the Acronyms | Part 6

As if we didn’t have enough acronyms already, the SECURE Act and SECURE 2.0 brought us a bunch of new ones…apart from the fact that SECURE is an acronym itself. Speaking of pieces of legislation, ...
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DWC |

Decoding the Alphabet Soup: What’s With All the Acronyms | Part 5

The fact that we are up to our fifth episode of Fun With Acronyms (with a sixth already in the queue) is telling of just how ridiculous all this geek-speak really is. Then again, we have FOMO, YOLO, ...
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DWC |

Decoding the Alphabet Soup: What’s With All the Acronyms | Part 4

We in the retirement plan business sure do like our acronyms. In fact, it might actually be possible to carry on an entire conversation using only acronyms and no real words.
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DWC |

In Case of Emergency, (Don't) Break Plan!

It seems that with each major new retirement plan law, Congress has an idea that is great in concept but unnecessarily convoluted in implementation. It’s usually when they try to combine existing but ...
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DWC |

ESG Isn't Dead...Yet

We are compliance geeks and not investment professionals, so it’s not often that we wade into the investment waters with our posts; however, a recent district court case out of Texas caught our ...
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DWC |

Form 5500 – File It Late or Incomplete?

Every year, we receive inquiries from plan sponsors unable to file the Forms 5500 for their 401(k) plans by the deadline. Though often due to the 5500 audit not yet being complete, there can any ...
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DWC |

Catching Up On Catch-Up Contributions, Part 3 – Return of the Plan Correction

Congratulations, you’ve made it to the third and final episode of our trilogy on the proposed catch-up contribution regulations that address changes made by SECURE 2.0 (S2). In part 1, we discuss the ...
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DWC |

Catching Up On Catch-Up Contributions, Part 2 – Rothification Strikes Back

A long time ago, in a Congress far far away, SECURE 2.0 (S2) was enacted...
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DWC |

Catching Up On Catch-Up Contributions, Part 1 – A New Limit

A long time ago, in a Congress far far away, SECURE 2.0 (S2) was enacted. Ok, that was only December 2022, but it seems like ages ago when we’ve had to navigate some of the new rules with minimal ...
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DWC |

Self-Correction of Participant Loans – The IRS Gave & DOL Confirms What it Took Away

Earlier this week, the Department of Labor published the first update to its Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program (VFCP) in nearly 20 years. Probably the most newsworthy change is the creation of ...
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DWC |

Self-Correction of Late Deposits…Finally, But Not Really

In a case of “be careful what you wish for”, we give you Exhibit A – the new DOL Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program (VFCP). The new version, published by the DOL today, makes a number of ...
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Historical contribution
DWC |

Historical Contribution & Testing Limits Chart

Contribution Limitations Limit Pro-Rate for Short Year* 2024 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 Annual Compensation Yes $345,000 $330,000 $305,000 $290,000 $285,000 $280,000 $275,000 ...
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DWC |

Form 1099-R Distribution Codes for Defined Contribution Plans

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DWC |

The 2025 Retirement Plan Contribution Limits

Extra! Extra! The IRS has released the 2025 contribution limits.
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DWC |

BenefitsPro Interview with Jennifer Gibbs Swets on SECURE Act 2.0

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DWC |

At Your Service: Calculating Length of Service

One of the most fundamental requirements in managing a qualified retirement plan is counting an employee’s length of service. It is the basis for determining such items as plan eligibility, ...
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DWC |

Profit Sharing Allocation Methods

Many retirement plans are designed to include a feature that allows the plan sponsor to make a profit sharing contribution each year. Since IRS rules allow the contribution to be discretionary ...
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DWC |

Employee Benefit Plan Record Retention

Employee Benefit Plan Record Retention
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DWC |

Historic DOL Enforcement Results

The Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) is the division of the Department of Labor (DOL) that is responsible for ensuring the integrity of the private, employment-based benefit system. ...
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DWC |

How To Handle Mergers and Acquisitions the Right Way

Congratulations! You’re buying (or selling) a company! Call your lawyer; call your accountant; call your…third party administrator? With all the hullabaloo surrounding this kind of transaction, the ...
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DWC |

Fiduciary Duties & Due Diligence

Understanding what it means to be a retirement plan fiduciary is simultaneously very simple and quite complex. An attorney we know gave this very simple explanation about how plan fiduciaries should ...
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DWC |

How to Select Retirement Plan Service Providers | Get the eBook

Are you a Plan Sponsor? Then it's your fiduciary duty to hire and oversee the industry service providers for your plan. Hopefully your current selection criteria is not limited to out-of-pocket costs ...
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DWC |

Compensation Jeopardy: Things You Might Not Know About Your Retirement Plan

According to the IRS, using incorrect compensation amounts to calculate retirement plan benefits and conduct annual compliance testing is one of the most common errors they see. How can such a ...
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DWC |

Employee or Independent Contractor: a Rose by Any Other Name

USA Today recently ran an article describing how many companies are using alternative work arrangements to adapt to an ever-changing business environment. Some may rely on more part-time workers, ...
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DWC |

401(k) Deferral Deposit Deadlines

Both the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Department of Labor (DOL) consider it a top priority to make sure that contributions employees make to their 401(k) and 403(b) plans are deposited on a ...
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DWC |

Company Contribution Deposit Deadlines

The deadline for depositing employee salary deferrals into the plan is relatively straightforward; however, the same cannot be said for company contributions such as matching and profit sharing ...
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DWC |

Cycle 3 DC Plan Restatement FAQs

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DWC |

Don’t Let the QDRO Be Worse Than the Marriage

Very few employers have any desire to get caught in the middle of the divorce proceedings of their employees; however, when company retirement benefits become part of the negotiations, unsuspecting ...
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DWC |

Corporate Structure and M&A

Retirement plans such as 401(k), 403(b) and defined benefit plans are employer-sponsored arrangements in that employers sponsor them for the benefit of their employees. That means it is important to ...
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DWC |

Everything You Want To Know About Cash Balance Plans*

*But Are Too Afraid to Ask
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DWC |

Attribution of Ownership FAQs

Although the notion of company ownership seems relatively straight-forward, Congress was concerned that companies could use “creative” ownership structures to avoid certain laws. As a result, they ...
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DWC |

401(k) or 403(b) : Tomāto, Tomäto?

The last few years have brought significant changes to the 403(b) world. The IRS' first update to the regulations in more than 40 years directly imposed new plan document and oversight requirements, ...
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DWC |

Twenty Questions: Retirement Plan Loan Style

Twenty Questions: Retirement Plan Loan Style
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DWC |

Beneficiary Designations: Family Feuding About Benefits

Thousands of plan sponsors surveyed … the top two answers are on the board. Name two sensitive subjects you would prefer to avoid getting stuck in the middle of with your employees. Ready, go!
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DWC |

Reporting & Disclosure Calendar for Cash Balance & Other Defined Benefit Plans

Date & Deadline Deadline Description January January 1
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DWC |

Nondiscrimination Testing: ADP & ACP Tests

The actual deferral percentage (ADP) and actual contribution percentage (ACP) tests are two of several nondiscrimination tests a plan must satisfy in order to remain compliant with IRS rules. Some of ...
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DWC |

Qualified Plan Compliance

Much of what is written the press about retirement plans focuses on the responsibilities of plan fiduciaries when it comes to fees and investments. Although very important, complying with all the IRS ...
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DWC |

Related Companies: Affiliated Service Group FAQs

It seems that businesses of all sizes are more frequently being structured using multiple companies and/or that business owners are acquiring interests in other companies. With the implementation of ...
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DWC |

Voluntary Plan Document Amendments & Restatements

One of the foundational rules of retirement plans is that they must be operated in strict accordance with the terms of the written plan document. Both the IRS and the courts adhere to this rule. The ...
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DWC |

Consequences of Using an Off-Calendar Plan Year

Just like a company, a retirement plan is required to operate on a set 12-month period. This is often referred to as the tax year or fiscal year for a business and a plan year for a retirement plan. ...
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DWC |

Mandatory Plan Document Amendments & Restatements

From time to time, all qualified retirement plans are required to be updated to reflect recent legislative and/or regulatory changes. Some of these updates are made through plan amendments, but ...
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DWC |

Forfeitures FAQs- Timing and Use

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DWC |

Retirement Plan Investments & Participant Communications

A retirement plan’s investment menu and the communication campaign are probably the two most visible aspects of any retirement plan from the participants’ perspective. They can go a long way in ...
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DWC |

Sometimes SIMPLE Isn't

One of the most frequent phone calls we receive — whether from a small business owner or an advisor working with one — starts something like this: "I [or my client] want to set up a retirement plan, ...
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DWC |

Safe Harbor 401(k) Plans: Your Port in the Testing Storm

If you are a current plan sponsor or are considering setting up a 401(k) plan, you may have heard the term ‘safe harbor’ mentioned. You may have been told that a safe harbor feature would benefit ...
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DWC |

Meet the MEPs: Breaking Down the Regulations

Multiple employer plans have a long and convoluted past (one that began well before the infamous DOL Advisory Opinion 2012-04A). In July 2019 the Department of Labor finally published its much ...
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DWC |

Rehires and Retirement Plans: It’s Déjà Vu All Over Again

Sooner or later, most companies will have an employee who leaves and comes back again. As is so often the case, the retirement plan rules related to rehires are quite different than those that apply ...
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DWC |

Download the Plan Design Quick Reference Chart

Which retirement plan design is right for you? With so many design options it can be difficult to keep them all straight. We've taken all the guess work out of it with our Plan Design Comparison ...
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DWC |

Request Your Sample Plan Design Project Report

Want to maximize the value of your HR dollar in your defined contribution or defined benefit plan? You need a cost benefit analysis.
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DWC |

MEPs: Dialing Down the Noise | Get the Webinar on Demand

We're setting the record straight on Multiple Employer Plans (MEPs)
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DWC |

Rules for Mandatory Cash-Outs

There are several important reasons to be aware of former employees with remaining balances in the plan.
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DWC |

Lost Participants: I Ain't Missing You at All!

Nope, this isn’t an article about bad pop songs from the 1980s, but it is about something that can be just as much of a bother – lost participants with remaining balances in your retirement plan. ...
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DWC |

Download the TPA Due Diligence Guide

TPA errors can be extremely costly.
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DWC |

Retirement Plan Service Provider Selection Checklists

Be sure you're doing your due diligence. Plan sponsors have a fiduciary duty to hire and oversee the industry service providers for retirement plans, and your selection process should not be limited ...
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DWC |

Distributions from a Retirement Plan

Ask just about any service provider who works with retirement plans what their most frequently asked questions are, and they will likely tell you that they all relate to how and when participants can ...
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DWC |

Significant or Insignificant, That is the Question

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DWC |

Missed Deferral Opportunities: When Opportunity Doesn't Knock

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DWC |

Download the Significance of Failure Calculator

What does "significant" mean really? In order to be eligible to correct an operational error under the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System's ("EPCRS") self-correction program one of the first ...
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DWC |

Who Are Highly Compensated & Key Employees?

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DWC |

In-Service Distributions FAQs

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Jen Swets |

New Distribution Options to Encourage Savings

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Adam C. Pozek |

It’s About Time – Long Term, Part Time Employees – Part 2

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Adam C. Pozek |

It’s About Time – Long Term, Part Time Employees – Part 1

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Sue Schnur |

Grab Bag of RMD Changes

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DWC |

The 2024 Retirement Plan Contribution Limits

Extra! Extra! The IRS has released the 2024 contribution limits.
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Carter Kimball |

Cash Out Limit is Movin' On Up

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Haden McDonald |

Trust But Verify...But Not For Hardship Distributions

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Adam C. Pozek |

The New Eligible Inadvertent Failure: A “Catch-Most” for Self-Correcting Plan Errors

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Adam C. Pozek |

Finding Balance with Form 5500

It’s rare that updates to the Form 5500 warrant little more than a yawn, if anyone other than those who prepare the forms even notice. That is NOT the case with changes issued by the Department of ...
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Adam C. Pozek |

Automatic (Enrollment) for the People - Losing Your Discretion

Ever since creating the ACA, EACA, and QACA as part of the Pension Protection Act of 2006, Congress has acted like automatic enrollment is the greatest thing since sliced bread when it comes to ...
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Adam C. Pozek |

Catch-Up Contributions: If It Ain’t Broke, Break It!

Adam C. Pozek | 02/02/23 Yeah, we know that’s not how the saying goes, but it appears Congress doesn’t.
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Adam C. Pozek |

Roth, Roth and More Roth – as Far as the Eye Can See

Congress seems to be in a continual love fest with two retirement concepts – automatic enrollment and Roth contributions – and SECURE 2.0 (S2) continues the trend for both. I guess it’s not ...
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Jen Swets |

SECURE 2.0’s New & Improved (But Really Math-y) Tax Credits for Startup Plans

SECURE 2.0 (S2) took the tax credits of OG SECURE and enhanced them, particularly for plans with fewer than 50 employees. And if you think “enhanced” sounds a bit loaded, you’re right; credits have ...
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Adam C. Pozek |

SECURE 2.0 Overview Post

You have likely already heard and read plenty about SECURE 2.0, signed into law on December 29, 2022. Rather than write yet another recitation of what’s in the new law in chronological order, we are ...
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DWC |

The 2023 Retirement Plan Contribution Limits

Extra! Extra! The IRS has released the 2023 contribution limits. In past years we would list only the limits that changed. With almost everything changing at historic levels, we have provided a few ...
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DWC |

DWC - The 401(k) Experts Announces Tianna Schulz as Firm Partner

National 401(k) Consultancy Expands Partnership with Tianna Schulz promoted to Partner Virginia Beach, VA – October 21, 2022 - DWC - The 401(k) Experts, an industry leader in providing 401(k) plan ...
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DWC |

DWC in Investment News: Bitcoin Too Risky for 401(k)s Part II?

"Before Fidelity made its move, the Department of Labor had sent a warning about using crypto in retirement accounts. In March, the agency issued a compliance assistance release cautioning retirement ...
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Adam C. Pozek |

Secure 2.0 - Don't Count Your Chickens Before They Hatch

Earlier this week, the House of Representatives passed SECURE 2.0. The bill (actual name is Securing a Strong Retirement Act of 2022) passed by the nearly unanimous margin of 414 to 5. It doesn’t get ...
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DWC |

DWC Selected as TPA for Franklin Templeton Retirement Group Plan Solution with Transamerica

Transamerica has been selected by Franklin Templeton as the recordkeeper for a new retirement plan solution. The Franklin Templeton Group Plan Solution is offered exclusively through Franklin ...
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DWC |

Step Aside 3(16) – the 402(a) Fiduciary Is The New Flavor of the Week

In the color-by-numbers world of retirement plan fiduciaries, the 3(21) was the first one on the block, followed quickly by the 3(38). Then came the 3(16), widely sold as the silver bullet that would ...
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DWC |

“Cover Me” with the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation

Welcome back to Cash Balance Corner (CBC) after a brief summer hiatus. We thought you deserved a break after all the math we threw at you in the last few entries. This is the 15th installment for ...
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DWC |

The Mega Backdoor Roth…Here We Go Again

Every year, the financial press seems to write about the so-called Backdoor Roth and Mega Backdoor Roth strategies in 401(k) plans, and this year is no exception. (Maybe the Super Duper Mega Backdoor ...
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DWC |

When Is the Best Time to Set Up a Safe Harbor 401(K) Plan?

Facts We have been thinking about setting a safe harbor 401(k) plan and have heard that there are some pretty stringent timing requirements depending on some of the provisions we select.
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DWC |

Designing Your 401(k) Plan for Combined Testing

Thousands of 401(k) plans are designed each year to promote savings in the most cost-effective manner. Most are established as stand-alone plans and will remain that way for their entire existence. ...
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DWC |

IRS Enforcement Initiatives: It’s Not Paranoia If They’re Really After You

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DWC |

2020 Retirement Plan Tax Deductions - It's Not Too Late

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DWC |

Nondiscriminatory Benefit Amounts - Treat Me Right

Outside the complex world of qualified plans, the term “nondiscrimination” can take on many different meanings based on many different points of view. Fortunately, in the qualified plan world, the ...
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DWC |

Will Moving My Company Ownership Into a Trust Impact Our 401(K) Plan?

Facts I’ve been working with my personal attorney and financial advisor on some estate planning. and one item I’m considering is placing some of my assets, including my company ownership, in a trust. ...
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DWC |

Interesting Compliance Scenarios - 2021 Edition

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DWC |

Minimum Plan Participation - With or Without You

Sponsoring a retirement plan can provide significant benefits to a company (and its participants). But with great benefits comes great responsibility…responsibility to follow all of the various ...
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DWC |

2020 DOL Enforcement Stats: Is the Glass Half Full or Half Empty?

From the Hot Seat to a Fireside Chat This week, we are bringing the heat in two completely different ways. Receiving notification that the Department of Labor is about to pay a visit to investigate ...
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DWC |

Can I Convert a Coronavirus-Related Distribution to a Roth IRA?

Facts We added Coronavirus-Related Distributions (CRDs) to our 401(k) plan in 2020, and a number of our participants availed themselves of the new feature. I know they have the option to pay any ...
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DWC |

MEP, PEP, or Stand Alone Plan, Which Is the Best Fit for Your Company?

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DWC |

Nondiscrimination Testing Creates Career Opportunites

Sponsoring a retirement plan can provide significant benefits to a company (and its participants). But with great benefits comes great responsibility…responsibility to follow all of the various ...
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DWC |

Why Does My Year-End Census Require Ownership and Family Information?

Facts We’ve compiled our year end census information, and we are now turning out attention to the accompanying questionnaire. I’m being asked for additional information such as ownership percentages, ...
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DWC |

Anticipating a New Hire - You Might Change Your Mind

Sponsoring a retirement plan can provide significant benefits to a company (and its participants). But with great benefits comes great responsibility…responsibility to follow all of the various ...
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DWC |

DWC The 401(k) Experts Partner Joe Nichols Announced as ARA President

National 401(k) Consultancy is Proud to Announce Joe Nichols as President of the ARA ST PAUL, Minn. – January 21, 2021 - The American Retirement Association (ARA) has named Joe Nichols, ASA, EA, MSPA ...
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DWC |

Which Financial Details Do I Report On My Year-End Census?

Facts Last week, you explained some the demographic data points that get reported on the annual census. Now, I’ve got some questions on the financial information I’ve been asked to provide to my TPA. ...
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DWC |

Which Employees Do I Have to Report on my Year-End Census Report?

Facts As for so many companies, the end of one year and the start of the next are especially busy times. And, without fail, we’ve already received the request for our annual census data from our ...
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DWC |

DWC's "How Do You Holiday?" Survey

Facts We're getting in the holiday spirit here at DWC, but we've noticed that there are a lot of differing opinions on how to holiday around here. We've settled some important debates with past ...
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DWC |

CARES Act Relief for Retirement Plan Loan Payments is Ending, Now What?

Facts Earlier this year, we implemented the coronavirus relief provisions that allowed our participants to suspend loan payments for the remainder of 2020. As a result of reduced hours and other ...
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DWC |

Adding an Employee to Your Cash Balance Plan? You Should be Thinking This Article is "Just What I Needed"

Sponsoring a retirement plan can provide significant benefits to a company (and its participants). But with great benefits comes great responsibility…responsibility to follow all of the various ...
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DWC |

DWC - The 401(k) Experts Announces Joe Nichols as Firm Partner

National 401(k) Consultancy Expands Partnership with Joe Nichols promoted to Partner KANSAS CITY, MO – December 1, 2020 - DWC - The 401(k) Experts, an industry leader in providing 401(k) plan ...
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DWC |

Overtime Is Up and Bonuses Are Down: Will This Year's Irregular Compensation Impact our Retirement Plan?

Facts We sponsor a 401(k) plan for our employees and provide a company matching contribution to those who defer. Our plan specifies that in calculating that match, we only consider employee base pay ...
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DWC |

DWC's Thanksgiving Dinner Prep Playlist

Facts All year long we've been leaving little rock 'n' roll Easter eggs in our Cash Balance Corner feed. ICYMI: Each post title incorporates one of our favorite songs. And for our 20th century rock ...
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DWC |

How Do Furloughed Employees Impact Our Plan at Year-End?

Facts Like many businesses, we had to furlough some employees earlier this year in response to the coronavirus shutdowns. We’ve been fortunate enough to bring back a few of these employees, but a ...
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DWC |

Are There Plan Design Options We Should Consider as Part of the Mandatory Cycle 3 Plan Document Restatement?

Facts We’ve been following your recent posts about how making even small changes to certain plan provisions can make managing the plan easier without sacrificing our objectives. Making life easier, ...
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DWC |

Cash Balance Compliance: "Takin' Care of Business"

Wow! We have covered a lot of ground over the last few entries, learning about how cash balance benefits are earned and funded. So far, our plan sponsor Robert Smith, Inc. has dealt with the ...
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DWC |

Does Counting Hours of Service for Plan Eligibility Have to be a Nightmare?

Facts We’ve been following along with the last few Questions of the Week and think we’re pretty comfortable with how we want to set up eligibility for our 401(k) plan. We’re definitely looking to ...
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DWC |

What's the Simplest Way to Set Up a One Year Eligibility Waiting Period for our 401(k)?

Facts We are looking to set up a 401(k) plan for our company. Our workforce includes both hourly and salaried employees as well as full-time, part-time, and seasonal workers. For now, we really want ...
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DWC |

The 2021 Retirement Plan Contribution Limits

Extra! Extra! The IRS has released the 2021 contribution limits. Since not everyone was awaiting them quite as eagerly as we were, here is a quick summary.
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DWC |

How to "Push It" (But Not Too Much) by Prefunding Cash Balance Plans

Thanks to the last few CB Corner entries, we now know that our plan sponsor Robert Smith, Inc. has a wide range of options when it comes to making contributions to its cash balance plan.
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DWC |

How Can We Tweak Our Plan's Eligibility Requirements to Make Administration Easier?

Facts We’ve sponsored our 401(k) plan for several years now, and it’s been very well-received by our employees. Believe it or not, though, one of the biggest challenges we have had is around when ...
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DWC |

How Can We Add More Flexibility to our Standard Profit Sharing Contributions?

Facts We have made profit sharing contributions each year, and we plan to continue to do so every year that our financial situation allows. Historically, we have contributed the same percentage of ...
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DWC |

Maximum Contributions: Additional "Opportunities"

In our last episode, we mentioned we would move on to developing an ideal funding policy. Before doing so, we realized there is one more aspect of the maximum allowable contribution we need to cover ...
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DWC |

Can We Tweak our 401(k) to Allow Additional Savings for Reasons More Immediate than Retirement?

Facts Our company takes a holistic approach to the benefits we offer. We want our employees to have access to benefits that assist them with their overall financial security. We offer several health ...
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DWC |

Cycle 3 DC Plan Restatement Resources

Every 6 years or so, the IRS requires the vast majority of company-sponsored retirement plans to update their plan documents through a process called "restating" the document. For 401(k) and other ...
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DWC |

Are Discretionary Matching Contributions Becoming a Little Less...Discretionary?

Facts My company has sponsored a 401(k) plan for many years, and it provides for a discretionary matching contribution. I’ve always sought to build in as much flexibility as possible, so having ...
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DWC |

Pension Pontifications | Q3 2020

Over the last several months we’ve been in touch quite a bit to keep you up to date on the many changing regulations occurring in the industry as legislators work to react to current events and ...
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DWC |

Can We Add a Safe Harbor Provision While Maintaining Flexibility in Contribution Costs?

Facts We currently sponsor a 401(k) plan and have been debating adding a safe harbor provision for 2021. While the idea of buying our way out of the ADP/ACP tests is appealing, we’re nervous about ...
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DWC |

Maximum Contributions: "Everybody Wants Some"

Let’s do a little recap. In the last two installments, we discussed what Robert is required to contribute (the Minimum) to his cash balance plan and what he should contribute (the Recommended). Now, ...
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DWC |

Can a Former Employee Roll a Coronavirus-Related Distribution Back into our Plan?

Facts Earlier this year, we decided to make the CARES Act coronavirus-related distributions (CRDs) available to participant in our 401(k) plan. We know that it is possible for participants to repay ...
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DWC |

"Complete Control" with Recommended Contributions

Congratulations on making it through our last installment and to this one. We typically do not like to get that deep into the weeds, but hey, this is actuarial stuff after all, and you can’t always ...
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DWC |

DWC - The 401(k) Experts Announces Jamelle Moody as Principal

HOUSTON, TX. – September 1, 2020 - DWC - The 401(k) Experts, an industry leader in providing 401(k) plan compliance, defined benefit services, consulting services and third-party plan administration ...
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DWC |

Is There an "Easy Button" for Setting Up a New Retirement Plan?

Facts As a small business owner, I’m constantly looking for cost-effective ways to improve the benefits I offer my employees. My industry is a competitive one, and it’s important to me to have a ...
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DWC |

Your Definition of Compensation Isn't in the ERISA Dictionary? We've Got a Fix for That.

Getting creative with the plan’s definition of compensation can be an effective way to target benefits, budget your benefit dollars, and maintain consistent benefit levels from year to year. However, ...
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DWC |

How Can I Minimize my Risk When Reviewing and Approving Hardship Withdrawals?

Facts As a plan sponsor, I want my employees to have access to their retirement accounts in the event of a financial emergency. I know that offering hardship withdrawals could satisfy that goal, but ...
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DWC |

One and One Makes Five: Calculating the Minimum Required Contribution

In our last episode, we showed how the cash balance benefit for our owner, Robert Smith, accumulates over time. In our Perfect World (no offense Huey!), Robert contributes exactly $100,000 to the ...
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DWC |

Which Common Plan Fees Can (and Should) We Pay from Plan Assets?

Facts We are reviewing our company expense budget to identify any that we can eliminate or reduce. We’ve read that it is possible to pay expenses related to maintaining company retirement plans out ...
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DWC |

DWC Celebrates the Success of its Summer 2020 Intern Consultants

DWC is honored to announce its 2020 intern consultants as they complete their final stage of the DWC University Intern Program.
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DWC |

What Are My Options (and Deadlines) for Implementing a Retirement Plan This Year?

Facts We’ve been debating implementing a 401(k) plan for 2020. After much back and forth, we’ve decided its “a go!” for this year. Since we are still in a more relaxed summer vacation mode, we’d like ...
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DWC |

Cash Balance Contributions: Definitely Not "Money for Nothing"

In our last installment, we took a look at the different ways to define the contribution credits in a cash balance plan. For Robert Smith, the owner and only employee of Robert Smith, Inc., the ...
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DWC |

Can We Offer Additional Matching Contributions Without Losing our Safe Harbor Status?

Facts We currently sponsor a 401(k) plan for our company. While we certainly want to be able to provide meaningful benefits to the owners, our goal is to encourage all our employees to save more for ...
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DWC |

Jacki Betz Joins DWC as Director of Business Development

MIAMI, FL. – July 30, 2020 – DWC – The 401(k) Experts, an industry leader in providing 401(k) plan compliance, defined benefit services, consulting services and third-party plan administration, has ...
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DWC |

Can We Offer Higher Profit Sharing Contributions to Employees Based on Performance?

Facts We’ve had a 401(k) plan for years, but we are now looking at ways to make it a more strategic part of our overall compensation package. In one of your previous Questions of the Week, you ...
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DWC |

Just Can't Get Enough...Savings from your 401(k) Plan

Now that we know the basics, we can apply our knowledge to (almost) real life scenarios. We will follow our fictitious company: Robert Smith, Inc., an S-corporation with no employees other than the ...
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DWC |

Can We Increase Profit Sharing Contributions and Decrease Salaries to Improve Testing and Save Money?

Facts We want to make job offers to some new employees and are looking strategically at our overall compensation package. Some of these candidates are seeking upwards of $130,000 which will make them ...
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DWC |

Must I Complete the Upcoming Mandatory Plan Document Restatement Before Terminating My Plan?

Facts I currently sponsor a 401(k) plan for my employees. As I start to consider retirement myself and eventual dissolution of the business, I’m compiling a list of all the things I need to do to ...
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DWC |

Defined Benefit vs. Defined Contribution: A Cash Balance Plan Primer

Welcome to Cash Balance Corner! We've created this bi-monthly column to teach you everything you need to know about defined benefit and cash balance plans in order to help you make the best possible ...
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DWC |

DWC News Update | eDisclosures: Initial Notice and Notice of Internet Availability

Welcome to the exciting conclusion of our foray into the brave new world of eDisclosures. Today, in our final look at the DOL’s new eDisclosure ruling, we will breakdown the Initial Notice and the ...
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DWC |

Pension Pontifications | Q2 2020

Get ready for the “PEP as panacea” pitch to the small plan marketplace (think low cost, highest quality services, coolest technology, least risk, etc.). We’ve already seen one promoter using the ...
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DWC |

401(k) vs 403(b): Which Is the Best Choice for My Non-Profit?

Facts As the director of a not-for-profit organization, I’m looking at retirement plan options for our employees. The fiscal year ends June 30th and I’d love to implement something to benefit our ...
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DWC |

Do We Have to Provide New Paperwork When a Participant Requests a Second Distribution?

Facts When a participant requests a distribution from our plan, I provide them with a with a package that includes an election form and a bunch of other information. A participant who terminated and ...
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DWC |

DWC News Update | eDisclosures: Covered Documents

The Department of Labor’s new rules that expand the electronic distribution of plan-related notices is a long-overdue and welcome change. We have provided a summary of the new eDisclosure rules and ...
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DWC |

Do We Have to Consider Pay Before a Participant is Eligible When Calculating Matching Contributions?

Facts Each year, after our last payroll in December, I submit my census information to the TPA for our 401(k) plan. Even though I’ve looked at each participant’s total deferrals for the year to ...
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DWC |

DWC News Update | eDisclosures: A Deep Dive into Electronic Addresses and Internet Websites

Although the Department of Labor’s new ruling on electronic disclosures doesn’t officially go live until the end of next month, it is already breathing new life into some fairly antiquated-sounding ...
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DWC |

Who Signs Our Form 5500?

Facts The person in our office who handles many of our administrative functions, including those related to our 401(k) plan, will be retiring soon, so we’re reviewing many of our internal processes ...
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DWC |

DWC News Update | New eDisclosure Rules: Maybe This Whole Internet Thing is Going to Stick

Just before Memorial Day weekend, the Department of Labor published rules allowing plan sponsors to set electronic media as the default method to provide plan information to participants. At more ...
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DWC |

Retroactively Decided Not to Make Safe Harbor Contributions for Your HCEs? We've Got a Fix (or Two) for That!

If you’ve been with us for a while you’ve heard us say a few things time and again. First, the rules and regulatory agencies do not allow plans to disproportionately favor highly compensated ...
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DWC |

Should We Make Up for Earnings Lost as a Result of a Delayed Distribution?

Facts Over the past several months, our turnaround times for normal business processes have lagged somewhat as we have adjusted operations in response to the various stay-at-home orders. When ...
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DWC |

How Much Fidelity Bond Coverage Are We Required to Have?

Facts We are in the process of reviewing all our various business insurance policies to determine which ones we need to keep, update, or eliminate. One the coverages on our review list is the ...
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DWC |

What Retirement Plan Filings and Records Must We Keep?

Facts We’ve sponsored a 401(k) plan since 2002 and the amount of paperwork and related records we’ve accumulated is incredible. Cleaning up these records has always been on my to-do list for a while, ...
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DWC |

Can We Pay Plan-Related Expenses Out of Plan Assets?

Facts Like many businesses, we’ve been watching our cash flow carefully over the past several weeks. We’re making adjustments where necessary so that we can stay on top of the invoices we receive ...
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DWC |

Should We Include Government-Mandated Coronavirus PTO When Calculating Company Contributions?

Facts We have several employees who have had to take time off from work either because of a loss of childcare or to care for affected family members due to the coronavirus. As a result of recent ...
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DWC |

The CARES Act Weekly Update | 4.16.2020

As the conversations surrounding CARES Act provisions continue to evolve, we are constantly updating our FAQs to provide the most in-depth and up to date information. This week, as a result of a lot ...
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DWC |

Is There Any Coronavirus Relief for Participants Who Want to Postpone Plan Loan Payments?

Facts Several participants in our 401(k) plan currently have outstanding plan loans, and many others are looking to initiate them. However, given the current pandemic, many participants are concerned ...
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DWC |

The CARES Act Weekly Update | 4.9.2020

This week we took a deeper look into participant's self-certification that they are eligible for relief under the Act, as well as the option some service providers are taking to automatically ...
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DWC |

How Does the CARES Act Expand the Availability of Retirement Plan Loans?

Facts Our 401(k) plan allows participants access to their accounts via hardship distributions and, for those at least age 59 ½, via in-service withdrawals. But with the economic uncertainty of the ...
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DWC |

Can We Allow a Distribution for a Coronavirus-Related Hardship?

Facts Some of our employees are dealing with financial challenges due to the coronavirus situation, and they are asking whether they can access their 401(k) accounts. Our plan allows for loans and ...
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DWC |

DWC News Update | The CARES Act: Federal Coronavirus Relief

On Friday afternoon, March 27th, Congress passed, and the President signed, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act - sweeping legislation intended to provide much-needed ...
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DWC |

How Do We Stop Our Discretionary Matching Contribution?

Facts My company sponsors a 401(k) plan that provides for a discretionary matching contribution, which we deposit each pay period along with employee deferrals. Given the economic uncertainty, I’m ...
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DWC |

Can We Suspend our Safe Harbor Contribution Mid-Plan Year?

Facts Given the current uncertainty in the world economy and the unknown ongoing affects of coronavirus, I’m looking at all financial obligations for our company, and for opportunities to reduce ...
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DWC |

How Can We Create More Flexibility in our Cash Balance Plan Contributions?

Facts We are considering adopting a new cash balance plan. We really like the higher contribution amounts, but we keep hearing that the contributions are fairly rigid and inflexible.
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DWC |

When the Grass Isn't Greener with More Plans, There's a Fix for That!

In our last Correction of the Quarter, we looked at related companies setting up different types of plans for their respective employees and noted that this sort of structure isn’t “necessarily” a ...
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DWC |

We Can't Find our Signed Plan Document, Now What?

Facts We have a new TPA for our 401(k) plan and they’ve asked for our current plan document that was effective January 1, 2017. We know the document was signed back when it was prepared, but we can’t ...
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DWC |

Have the Rules for Safe Harbor 401(k) Notices Changed?

Facts My company sponsors a safe harbor 401(k) plan and every year my TPA sends me a reminder to distribute a notice to participants. It’s not the biggest hassle but I’ve wondered if it’s really ...
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DWC |

Do We Still Need to Suspend Deferrals Following a Hardship Distribution?

Facts Larry and Kent are both participants in our company’s 401(k) plan. Both recently went back to school on a part-time basis to pursue graduate degrees and will continue working for us. Each of ...
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DWC |

Do We Need to Continue Paying RMDs for a Deceased Participant?

Facts The CEO (and 5% owner) of our company passed away earlier this year at the age of 73. He started taking his required minimum distributions right on time after reaching age 70 ½. At the time of ...
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DWC |

Safe Harbor 401(k) Resources

If you are a current plan sponsor or are considering setting up a 401(k) plan, you may have heard the term ‘safe harbor’ mentioned. You may have been told that a safe harbor feature would benefit ...
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DWC |

Short Plan Years... Lookback Years... What (and When) Are They and Why Do I Care?

Facts My company started a brand new 401(k) plan last year. We didn’t start the plan until July 1, and since we operate on the calendar year, our first “year” of the plan will only be the six-month ...
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DWC |

What New Tax Credits are Available for Adding an Automatic Enrollment Feature to our Plan?

Facts Our business currently has a retirement plan and we are considering adding automatic enrollment. We have heard that there are new tax credits available to employers who include automatic ...
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DWC |

Am I Now Required to Include Part-Time Employees in my 401(k) Plan?

Facts As the owner of a beachside hotel, I sponsor a calendar year 401(k) plan for my employees. In the summer we hire many part-time employees to assist with the uptick in guests and activities. Our ...
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DWC |

Is It Too Late to Set Up a Retirement Plan to Get a Tax Deduction for Last Year?

Facts Although my New Year’s resolutions include less procrastination it’s likely that by the time Valentine’s Day gets here that good intention will long be in my rear view. As I draft these 2020 ...
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DWC |

What Tax Credits are Available for Setting Up a New Retirement Plan?

Facts Our business is thinking of setting up a retirement plan. We’ve heard that there are new tax credits offered under the SECURE Act available to employers who set up new plans.
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DWC |

What is the Simplest Way to Add Automatic Enrollment to our Plan?

Facts We are considering adding automatic enrollment to our 401(k) plan. We’ve read some of the other posts on your website about EACAs and QACAs, but that all seems like a lot of extra complexity ...
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DWC |

Plan Corrections

The rules that govern retirement plans are voluminous and complex. The Pension Protection Act, passed in 2006, is just one of many laws that applies, and it is over 1,000 pages long. The Department ...
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DWC |

DWC News Update | The SECURE Act Has Snuck Through

(Updated 12/23/2019) Late Friday evening (aboard Air Force One leaving DC for his holiday retreat), President Trump signed the spending bill that included the SECURE Act. In a bit of last-minute ...
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DWC |

Do the Rules About Related Companies Apply to Non-Profits with No Owners?

Facts I work for a non-profit organization that is thinking of setting up a retirement plan. One of the service providers who we’ve spoken to about this said something about determining whether we ...
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DWC |

Pension Pontifications | Q4 2019

Written by Keith Clark, Managing Partner The end of the year is a time for reflection, and this year we have a lot to look back on. We entered our 20th year of business this past May. Eleven years ...
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DWC |

Do 401(k) Loans Impact a Participant's Credit Score?

Facts Our 401(k) plan allows participants to take loans from their accounts. We have a written policy that describes how the loans work and spells out the requirements that the plan and participants ...
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DWC |

What is a Suspense Account and Can We Use Our Forfeiture Account Instead?

Facts The annual compliance report that our TPA provided to us indicates that we over-funded matching contributions for certain employees and instructs us to transfer the excess amounts out of the ...
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DWC |

Tradition vs. Taste: What Classic Thanksgiving Dish Do You Secretly Dislike?

Facts Every year we gather with family and friends to stuff ourselves silly in honor of the first harvest here in the New World. Since that time, families have perfected and passed down Turkey Day ...
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DWC |

When More (Plans) Isn't Merrier: We've Got a Fix for That!

Stop us if you’ve heard this one before – a SEP, a SIMPLE, and a 401(k) walk into a bar…unfortunately, there’s not a great punch line at the end of this one. Instead of some good laughs, this ...
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DWC |

Are Rehires Immediately Eligible for our 401(k) Plan?

Facts We just rehired an employee that used to work for us but who terminated almost 4 years ago. She was eligible for our 401(k) plan during her previous tenure but took a distribution of her ...
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DWC |

What is a Short Plan Year and What Does It Mean for My Deferrals?

Facts Our company operates on a calendar tax year, but our 401(k) plan runs on a fiscal year ending each June 30th. It is a real hassle to manage two different year-ends, so we asked our TPA about ...
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DWC |

The 2020 Retirement Plan Contribution Limits

The IRS has released the 2020 contribution limits! Since not everyone was awaiting them quite as eagerly as we were, here is a quick summary.
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DWC |

What Do You Do with the SIMPLE IRA Sponsored by the Company You Just Acquired?

Facts My company recently acquired another firm. As we work to combine all of our operations, we’ve discovered a few differences in our employee benefits, specifically our retirement plans. While ...
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DWC |

Is It Possible to Split Eligibility to Allow for Deferrals but to Postpone Safe Harbor Contributions?

Facts We allow new employees to join our 401(k) plan on the first of the month after they are hired. They become eligible to make deferrals and also receive the company safe harbor contribution at ...
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DWC |

DWC News Update | Two Years in the Making: The Final IRS Hardship Distribution Regulations Are Here

It’s been a while, but we finally have them! Late last month, the IRS published the final hardship distribution regulations, nearly two years after Congress passed the Bipartisan Budget Act and the ...
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DWC |

Are We Required to Make Safe Harbor Contributions for HCEs?

Facts My company sponsors a safe harbor 401(k) plan so that all of the highly compensated employees can maximize their deferrals without worrying about failing the ADP test each year. Although we ...
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DWC |

Is There a Plan Design that Combines the Benefits of Automatic Enrollment and Safe Harbor?

Facts My company sponsors a 401(k) plan, and we fail the annual ADP test pretty consistently. We really want to increase participation; not only to help our test results, but also to encourage our ...
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DWC |

Can Automatically Enrolled Participants Who Forgot to Opt Out Withdraw Their Deferrals?

Facts We are thinking of adding automatic enrollment to our 401(k) plan. One of our concerns, however, is that we might end up with a bunch of tiny account balances for participants who forget to opt ...
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DWC |

Is It Possible to Avoid an Audit for the First (Short) Year of Our Plan?

Facts Our company has about 200 employees, and we launched a new 401(k) plan on October of last year. We were eager for all of our existing employees to get excited about this new benefit, so we ...
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DWC |

How Do I Calculate How Much Money is Available for a 401(k) Loan?

Facts The participants in my company’s 401(k) plan are regularly inquiring about how much money they have available for a loan. When I report back the amount available to them, it’s not unusual for ...
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DWC |

Meet the MEPs: What's Next?

Welcome to the finale of our series on the Department of Labor’s new regulations, updating the definition of “Employer” under ERISA to extend the availability of multiple employer plans to more ...
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DWC |

What is Automatic Enrollment and How Does it Work?

Facts Our company sponsors a 401(k) plan, but very few of our participants are contributing. We started the plan as an added benefit to help attract and retain employees, but we also truly want to ...
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DWC |

Pension Pontifications | Q3 2019

All of us here at DWC thrive on the really geeky stuff, and some of the best discussions start with our pontifications about how different topics impact our clients and our industry. We decided to ...
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DWC |

Meet the MEPs: Grab Bag

The Department of Labor’s new regulations that expand the availability of multiple employer plans cover quite a bit of ground. In previous posts, we’ve explored Association MEPs, PEO MEPs, Corporate ...
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DWC |

What is a Successor Plan and Does It Prevent Me from Starting a New 401(k) Plan?

Facts My company used to sponsor a 401(k) plan for my employees. Due to an unforeseen financial hardship, we terminated the plan two years ago. Now that we are back on solid footing, I would like to ...
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DWC |

Meet the MEPs: Corporate MEPs

Thanks to the Department of Labor’s recently published regulations, we went from just having multiple employer plans top having several different types of MEPs. We’ve already covered association MEPs ...
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DWC |

How Do We Identify Highly Compensated Employees for the First Year Our Company Exists?

Facts We established our company on February 1st of this year, and now we are planning to launch our 401(k) plan. We know there are number of tests and determinations that require us to look at ...
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DWC |

Your Safe Harbor Actually Isn't? We've Got a Fix for That!

We’ve been through a few Corrections of the Quarter together now, and we appreciate you being along for the ride. We feel this is pretty good stuff but, at the heart of it all, we’re pension geeks ...
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DWC |

Meet the MEPs: PEOs

The next item up for bids in our series on the Department of Labor’s new regulations on multiple employer plans is on professional employer organizations, more commonly referred to by their acronym: ...
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DWC |

Who Are All the Providers Servicing My Plan & What Do They Do?

Facts I sponsor a small 401(k) plan for my employees. Sometimes, I get confused about which service provider to go to for different plan-related questions. Time and efficiency are important to me ...
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DWC |

Uncashed Distribution Checks? The IRS Provides New Guidance...Sort Of

Just about anyone who has dealt with a 401(k) plan – either as a plan sponsor or a service provider – for any amount of time has had to deal with the issue of participants not timely cashing plan ...
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DWC |

Meet the MEPs: Working Owners

Unless you’ve been on vacation somewhere off the grid, you’ve likely heard the news and read the headlines that the Department of Labor recently published new regulations that expand the availability ...
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DWC |

What is the Deadline to Implement a Retirement Plan for the Current Year?

UPDATE | This QOTW has been updated to reflect changes included in the SECURE Act, signed into law on December 20, 2019. The updated article is available here. Facts Returning from sunny days at the ...
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DWC |

Meet the MEPs: Association Retirement Plans

When the Department of Labor’s new multiple employer plan regulations take effect later this year, we will have three types of MEPs:
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DWC |

Is It Possible to Convert a Pre-Tax 401(k) Account to a Roth Account?

Facts We recently had one of the participants in our 401(k) plan ask if it is possible to convert her balance from pre-tax to Roth. She has been a participant in our plan for many years and has both ...
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DWC |

Can We Require Employees to be Employed at Year-End to Receive a Safe Harbor Contribution?

Facts Our company sponsors a safe harbor 401(k) plan. Each participant receives a safe harbor nonelective contribution equal to 3% of his or her annual pay. Our TPA calculates the safe harbor ...
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DWC |

DWC News Update: It's Just Another MEPish Monday

Yesterday morning while we were all sipping our first cup of Monday morning coffee, the Department of Labor published its much-anticipated final regulations expanding the availability of multiple ...
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DWC |

How Does a Participant's Divorce Affect our 401(k) Plan?

Facts One of the participants in our 401(k) plan is going through a divorce, and we just received a court order directing us to provide a portion of his account to his ex-spouse. I thought that ...
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DWC |

What Do We Need to Consider When Switching from a SIMPLE IRA to a 401(k)?

Facts We’ve sponsored a SIMPLE IRA for our employees for years and while it’s served its purpose, we are beginning to feel the limitations inherent in the plan. As we begin to grow, we’d love to be ...
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DWC |

DWC News Update: A Bad Apple a Day Keeps the MEP Away

One of the drawbacks that is often cited about multiple employer plans is the so-called “one bad apple rule.” It provides that if a single participating employer in a MEP allows its part of the plan ...
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DWC |

Which Comes First: The Contribution or the K-1?

Facts As a self-employed individual, I run a successful business and have set up a retirement plan to provide for tax-sheltered savings. When its time to determine the contribution amount each year, ...
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DWC |

How Can We Improve ADP/ACP Test Results Without Offering Safe Harbor?

Facts My architectural firm sponsors a 401(k) plan. We have 38 architects and 2 administrative assistants. We currently provide a matching contribution to participants and, some years, a profit ...
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DWC |

Reporting & Disclosure Calendar for 401(k) & Other Defined Contribution Plans

Date & Deadline Deadline Description January January 31 Forms 1099-R Due to Participants The custodian/directed trustee of the plan delivers Forms 1099-R directly to the participants. Please ...
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DWC |

Safe Harbor 401(k) Match vs. Nonelective: Two Words for the Same Thing or Two Different Options

Facts I recently got a promotion at work, and one of my new job responsibilities is to help manage our company’s retirement plan. It is a safe harbor 401(k) plan. A number of our employees are about ...
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DWC |

Spouse or Not a Spouse? That is the Question...of the Week

Facts Our company has sponsored a 401(k) plan for a while and although it’s not new to us that certain situations - from beneficiary designations to annual nondiscrimination testing - might require ...
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DWC |

Feeling Defeated in the Battle of Participant Loans? We've Got a Fix for That.

While not quite as ominous as a battle with the Night King, dealing with participant loans in retirement plans can be a daunting challenge for plan sponsors. Because of Congress’ concerns about ...
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DWC |

What Does Safe Harbor Mean, Exactly?

Facts When we set up our new 401(k) plan last year, we decided not to add a safe harbor provision because we were not in a position to commit to the required contribution. Then we heard our TPA say ...
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DWC |

DWC News Update: House Passes the SECURE Act

-A breakdown of breaking news from DWC's Managing Partner, Keith Clark If you are reading the mainstream press, the SECURE Act being signed into law is just around the corner. While the overwhelming ...
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DWC |

Which Compensation Do You Use When Your Company Fiscal Year is Different Than Your Plan Year?

Facts When we set up our 401(k) plan, our partnership operated on a fiscal year that ran from July 1st to June 30th. We set the 401(k) plan year to line up with our company’s fiscal year. We recently ...
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DWC |

Are Missed Deferrals and Late Deferral Deposits the Same Thing?

Facts Our company sponsors a 401(k) plan. One of our newer employees, Jane Smith, met the eligibility requirements and should have joined the plan on January 1st. Due to an oversight, we forgot to ...
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DWC |

Top Heavy vs. ADP: What's the Difference?

Facts As a plan sponsor, I do my best to review the annual compliance reports my TPA sends to me, but to be honest, it might as well be written in a foreign language. For example, several of our ...
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DWC |

Are We Required to Force Former Employees to Take Their Money Out of Our Plan?

Facts We just received our year end testing and it mentioned that we have several terminated participants with small balances that we are required to distribute from the plan. I remember seeing ...
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DWC |

DWC News Update: The IRS Helps Those Who Help Themselves

The IRS did its part to make Friday, April 19th a really good Friday for those who sponsor qualified retirement plans. After not making many friends when it jacked up the user fees for the Voluntary ...
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DWC |

Who are Leased Employees & Are They Eligible for my 401(k) Plan?

Facts I own a small manufacturing company that specializes in office supplies, and I sponsor a 401(k) plan for my employees. One of my former employees, Tim Halpert, worked full-time with me for the ...
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DWC |

What is the PBGC & Does it Cover our Cash Balance Plan?

Facts Our company is thinking of setting up a cash balance plan. In our research about what that entails, we keep running into information about the PBGC and paying premiums.
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DWC |

What is the Form 8955-SSA and What Does It Do?

Facts Our company has been very fortunate to have low turnover over the years. Those that have left either were not eligible for our 401(k) plan, or they had very small balances and had their ...
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DWC |

DWC News Update: Will Association MEPs be DOA?

If you followed any news outlets at all on Friday, you probably read or heard headlines like this one from CNN: “Court Blocks Another Trump Attempt to Undermine Obamacare”. While the Washington, D.C. ...
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DWC |

How (and for How Long) Can I Extend the Deadline to File our Form 5500?

Facts We’ve had our retirement plan for a couple of years now and feel that we are finally getting the hang of the various deadlines for our plan. There is just one deadline that I always have ...
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DWC |

What Common Compliance Issues Should We Be Watching For?

Facts Our company sponsors a 401(k) plan, and we want to make sure we do everything correctly. We have a great staff and have put processes in place to help ensure we operate the plan in a compliant ...
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DWC |

Pension Pontifications | Q1 2019

All of us here at DWC thrive on the really geeky stuff, and some of the best discussions start with our pontifications about how different topics impact our clients and our industry. We decided to ...
Read More
DWC |

Can Employees from a Former Subsidiary Take a Distribution from our 401k Plan?

Facts Our company has several wholly-owned subsidiaries, and each of them has signed onto our 401(k) plan as participating employers. We sold 100% of the stock of one of those subsidiaries – Glen’s ...
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DWC |

Plan Loans & Past Participants: What Happens to a Participant's Loan Balance When They Terminate Employment?

Facts We have a participant who took a loan from his 401(k) account at the beginning of the year. Yesterday, he gave us notice of his resignation, effective in two weeks, but he still has an ...
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DWC |

Forfeiture Account Gathering Dust? We’ve got a fix for that!

With all the responsibilities that come with being a plan sponsor, not to mention a business owner, your plan’s forfeiture account probably doesn’t make it anywhere near the top of the priority list. ...
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DWC |

We Failed the ADP Test! What Did We Do Wrong and How Do We Fix It?

Facts Our TPA just sent us our annual compliance report, and it says we failed testing! This is the first year we’ve failed anything, and now we’re being told that we need to take money out of the ...
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DWC |

Can Higher Than Normal Turnover Affect my 401(k) Plan? | Part 3 of 3: The Results

Facts In last week’s QOTW, you provided some tools we could use to identify which participants were affected by our decision to close one of our locations, and to calculate our actual turnover rate ...
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DWC |

Can Higher Than Normal Turnover Affect my 401(k) Plan? | Part 2 of 3: Doing the Math

Facts Last week, we asked whether the turnover we are expecting as a result of closing a facility would have any impact on our 401(k) plan, and you mentioned a partial plan termination. We have some ...
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DWC |

Can Higher Than Normal Turnover Affect my 401(k) Plan? | Part 1 of 3: Overview

Facts Our company designs and manufactures boats. Due to some advancements in technology, we will be closing one of our older facilities. While we offered those workers the option to relocate to one ...
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DWC |

Are There Risks to Contributing More Than the Minimum to a Cash Balance Plan?

Facts I set up a cash balance plan two years ago and have put in the minimum required contribution each year. Now, in my third year, I would like to make the maximum deductible contribution, which is ...
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DWC |

New eBook: How To Select Retirement Plan Service Providers

Are you a plan sponsor? Then it's your fiduciary duty to hire and oversee the industry service providers for your plan. This new eBook will help you do it right.
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DWC |

How Can We Pass Nondiscrimination Testing with Low Non-HCE Participation?

Facts I am fed up with sponsoring my current retirement plan. My wife and I contribute the maximum amount we can in deferrals each year. Due to low participation by our employees, we fail ADP testing ...
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DWC |

Can We Reduce the Number of HCEs in our Plan?

Facts We set up our company 401(k) plan soon after we started our business. At the time, we were a small tech company with only a couple of employees. Over the years the company has grown ...
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DWC |

Can We Change our Plan's Vesting Schedule?

Facts We set up our company 401(k) plan soon after we started the business. At the time, being able to afford to make a match or profit sharing contribution seemed so distant as to not be worth ...
Read More
DWC |

Forgot to (Timely) Execute a Document Restatement? There's a Fix for That!

You probably know that establishing a qualified retirement plan requires the formal adoption of a written, legal plan document. And, if you’ve had a plan in place for any amount of time, you’ve most ...
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DWC |

Hardships & Hurricanes: What are the Hardship Rules Following a Natural Disaster?

Facts Our company sponsors a 401(k) plan. One of our participants lives in the Florida panhandle and lost her home in Hurricane Michael. She is under age 59 ½ and is not eligible to take in-service ...
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DWC |

Are We Still Required to Suspend Deferrals Following a Hardship Distribution?

Facts I sponsor a 401(k) Plan for myself and my staff. I recently processed a hardship distribution for the purchase of my primary residence in October 2018. I know the rules require me to suspend my ...
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DWC |

Q4 Pension Pontifications

All of us here at DWC thrive on the really geeky stuff, and some of the best discussions start with our pontifications about how different topics impact our clients and our industry. We decided to ...
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DWC |

What is the Deadline to Deposit our Safe Harbor Matching Contribution?

Facts Our company sponsors a safe harbor 401(k) plan that provides a matching contribution equal to 100% of the first 4% each participant defers. I had always thought that the deadline for us to ...
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DWC |

Joe Nichols Joins DWC as Firm Actuary

SAVANNAH, MO – December 3, 2018 – DWC - The 401(k) Experts, an industry leader in providing 401(k) plan compliance, defined benefit services, consulting services and third-party plan administration, ...
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DWC |

Are RMDs Required for a Retiree Turned Independent Contractor?

This QOTW has been updated to reflect changes made by the SECURE Act, which was signed into law on December 20, 2019. Participants who were born on or before July 1, 1949, are required to start ...
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DWC |

Drama or Comedy: What's Your Holiday Film Favorite?

Facts Here at DWC we're getting into the holiday spirit. We've done our grocery shopping, prepped the pies and pulled out our eating pants. There's just one thing missing.
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DWC |

Breaking News: Hardship Distributions Becoming Even Less of a Hardship Than Previously Expected

Nearly a year after Congress passed changes to the hardship distribution rules in the Bipartisan Budget Act and the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the IRS has published proposed regulations to fill in some ...
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DWC |

Can We Suspend RMDs for a Rehire?

This QOTW has been updated to reflect changes made by the SECURE Act, which was signed into law on December 20, 2019. Participants who were born on or before July 1, 1949, are required to start ...
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DWC |

Announcing a New Knowledge Center Experience

At DWC we thrive on the really geeky stuff. We place a premium on research and choose to share that knowledge. A vast majority of our industry reads summaries of regulatory developments and trends ...
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DWC |

Can a Participant Get a Jump on RMDs & Start Taking Them a Few Months Early?

This QOTW has been updated to reflect changes made by the SECURE Act, which was signed into law on December 20, 2019. Participants who were born on or before July 1, 1949, are required to start ...
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DWC |

The 2019 Retirement Plan Contribution Limits

The IRS has released the 2019 contribution limits! Since not everyone was awaiting them quite as eagerly as we were, here is a quick summary.
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DWC |

What Costs can be Covered Under a Hardship Distribution for Purchase of a Primary Residence?

Facts One of the participants in our 401(k) plan submitted a request for a hardship distribution for the purchase of a primary residence. On review of the supporting documentation, we discovered that ...
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DWC |

Retirement Plan Design

Introduction Whether you are starting a new plan or reviewing your current plan design, the key to success is access to knowledge for selecting the best plan.
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DWC |

Can In-Service Distributions be Taken Prior to Age 59 1/2?

Facts One of the participants in our 401(k) plan heard from a friend that it is possible to take money out of a plan while still employed. I’ve always heard that age 59 ½ is the rule of thumb as to ...
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DWC |

Plan Sponsor Requirements

Any company that sponsors a retirement plan for its employees has a responsibility to operate the plan properly, to follow a prudent process in making plan-related decisions (and monitoring those ...
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DWC |

Can Participants Invest Their 401(k) Accounts in Real Estate?

Facts I am the 100% owner of my company, and we have a 401(k) plan that allows all our employees to direct the investment of their own accounts from a menu of mutual fund options via our ...
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DWC |

Plan Sponsors & Fiduciaries: Here's What You Should Be Watching

DWC stays on top of what's trending, and our self-proclaimed pension geeks often offer their insights in industry publications. As we transition into the fourth quarter the theme has been, "What Plan ...
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DWC |

Can We Change our 401(k) Plan Eligibility Requirements to Exclude Employees Who Have Already Joined?

Facts Our company has quite a few employees who only work a few hours each week. When we setup the 401(k) plan, we wanted to allow all our employees to save, so we set the eligibility requirement at ...
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DWC |

10 Common Retirement Plan Compliance Failures Found by the IRS

Contrary to what some people may think while writing out checks for penalty fees, the IRS doesn't actually want to find compliance issues in retirement plans.
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DWC |

Why Does Your TPA Need Personal & Ownership Details from Company Owners?

Facts Our company sponsors a 401(k) plan for our employees. The owners of the company have always been somewhat secretive in terms of sharing detailed information about themselves and their families. ...
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DWC |

Delinquent Deposits of Employee Deferrals? There's a Fix for That!

While it might not seem like that big of a deal if 401(k) deposits are made a couple days or weeks late, the Department of Labor (DOL) considers those payroll withholdings to be plan money on the ...
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DWC |

Can a Charitable Organization be Named as a Plan Beneficiary?

Facts Our company sponsors both a 401(k) plan and a cash balance plan. One of our employees is a strong supporter of a local charity. She does not have a spouse or children, so she would like to name ...
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DWC |

What Is a True-Up Matching Contribution?

Facts Our 401(k) plan provides for a matching contribution of 50% of the first 6% deferred by each participant (for a maximum match of 3% of pay per year). We deposit the matching contributions to ...
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DWC |

Q3 Pension Pontifications

All of us here at DWC thrive on the really geeky stuff, and some of the best discussions start with Adam and Keith’s pontifications about how different topics impact our clients and our industry. We ...
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DWC |

Decoding the Alphabet Soup: What's With All the Acronyms? | Part 3

Facts People in the retirement plan business sure do like their acronyms. All these letters get thrown around, and I do not know what half of them mean.
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DWC |

No Beneficiary Form: Now What?

Facts A participant in our 401(k) plan recently passed away. His daughter is the executor of his estate and has asked about the process for getting his plan account paid out. We’ve gone through all ...
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DWC |

DWC's Tianna Schulz Relocates to New Orleans, Expands Company Presence

NEW ORLEANS - Aug. 20, 2018 - DWC - The 401(k) Experts, an industry leader in providing 401(k) plan compliance, defined benefit services, consulting services and third-party plan administration, ...
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DWC |

Breaking News: The IRS PLR on Student Loan Benefits in 401(k) Plans is Much Ado About Not Much

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming to highlight the IRS’ not-so-ground-breaking entrance into the world of student loan benefits in 401(k) plans.
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DWC |

How Are Corrective Refunds Determined for a Failed ADP Test?

Facts Our 401(k) plan failed the ADP test for the first time this year. We decided to correct the failure by making refunds to the highly compensated employees instead of making additional ...
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DWC |

Retirement Planning & Regulatory Trends You Should Be Watching

Feeling out of the loop on industry happenings this summer? DWC stays on top of what's trending, and our self-proclaimed pension geeks often offer their insights in industry publications. Get caught ...
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DWC |

Decoding the Alphabet Soup: What's With All the Acronyms? | Part 2

Facts People in the retirement plan business sure do like their acronyms. All these letters get thrown around, and I do not know what half of them mean.
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DWC |

What Do We Do With Mutual Fund Settlement Proceeds?

Facts Our company sponsors a 401(k) plan, and we moved to a new recordkeeper about two years ago. Last week we received a letter and a check from our previous recordkeeper indicating that the check ...
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DWC |

Another Summer Intern Program Success for DWC

DWC is honored to announce its six 2018 summer intern consultants have successfully completed their summer program.
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DWC |

How Do We Correct Missed Deferrals for New Hires?

Facts Our 401(k) plan allows new employees to make contributions on the first day of the quarter after they work for us for a year. All of our full-time employees have been with us for a long time. ...
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DWC |

How Plan Sponsors Can be Better Fiduciaries (With or Without the Rule)

Whether a company is small or large, chances are it offers employees a 401(k). But this well-intentioned benefit has become target practice for attorneys, with lawsuits against companies ranging from ...
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DWC |

Decoding the Alphabet Soup: What's With All the Acronyms? | Part 1

Facts People in the retirement plan business sure do like their acronyms. All these letters get thrown around, and I do not know what half of them mean.
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DWC |

An Employee Joined the Plan Too Soon:  No Harm, No Foul or Failure In Need of a Fix?

Facts In order to be eligible for our company’s 401(k) plan, employees must have worked for us for at least a year and be a minimum of 21 years old. They can join the plan on the next January 1st or ...
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DWC |

Here's What Happens to Your 401(k) After a Company Merger or Acquisition

Corporate mergers and acquisitions can be stressful. When employees hear that their company is part of such a deal, they instinctively worry about their jobs. Even with reassurances that there's no ...
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DWC |

Can A Departing Employee Make 401(k) Contributions From Severance Pay?

Facts When certain employees terminate employment with our company, we agree to continue severance payments for a period of time after they leave. Some of these employees have asked us to continue ...
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DWC |

DWC Continues Expansion, Adds Ali Bechtel as Marketing Director

RALEIGH, NC - June 18, 2018 - DWC - The 401(k) Experts, an industry leader in providing 401(k) plan compliance, defined benefit services, consulting services and third-party plan administration, has ...
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DWC |

Correcting a Failure to Withhold Deferrals from Eligible Compensation

Facts ABC Company maintains a 401(k) plan that includes the following provisions: It operates on a calendar year. Compensation is defined as W2 wages with pre-tax deferrals added back and no ...
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DWC |

What Compensation Should We Use to Calculate Company Contributions to our 401(k) Plan?

Facts Our company has a safe harbor 401(k) plan. In addition to employees making deferrals, we make a company contribution equal to 3% of each person’s compensation. We deposit both types of ...
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DWC |

After-Tax vs. Roth Contributions: What's the Difference?

Facts Our company has a 401(k) plan that provides a matching contribution equal to 100% of the first 4% that each employee contributes. We set it up that way to ensure that our highly compensated ...
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DWC |

When Will Bitcoin Make Its Way to 401(k) Plans?

For more than a year bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have been making headlines, and its skyrocketing value has investors asking when it will become an investment menu option for their 401(k) or ...
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DWC |

Is Bitcoin a Realistic 401(k) Investment Option?

Facts Someone would have to be living under a rock for the last year or so not to have noticed all the talk about Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency. The values have fluctuated quite a bit, but all the ...
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DWC |

Can We Exclude Seasonal Employees From Our 401(k) Plan?

Facts Our company’s workload fluctuates throughout the year with big spikes during the summer. As a result, we often hire seasonal workers who help us out during the busy times, but do not work ...
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DWC |

Can You Make Extra Payments on a 401(k) Loan to Pay It off Faster?

Facts A participant in our 401(k) plan took out a loan a couple years ago. She could only afford to make the bare minimum payments at the time, but is now in a financial position to pay down the loan ...
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DWC |

Can a Company Freeze a 401(K) Account if an Employee Is Suspected of Stealing From the Company?

Facts We just discovered that one of our employees has been stealing money from the company for quite some time. We fired him as soon as we discovered the theft, and we are working with the police ...
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DWC |

401(k) Notice Distribution: Hard Copy vs. Electronic Delivery

Facts It seems like 401(k) plans require a lot of different notices and disclosures be provided to participants each year. We have safe harbor and default investment notices at the end of the year, ...
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DWC |

401(k) Distribution Rules: After Taking a Hardship Distribution, How Quickly Must a Participant Stop 401(k) Contributions?

Facts A participant in our 401(k) plan recently took a hardship distribution. We know we are supposed to suspend his deferrals for six months following the distribution, but we are not entirely clear ...
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DWC |

Is it Possible for a 401(k) Beneficiary to Waive Benefits?

Facts One of our employees who was a participant in our 401(k) plan recently passed away. He never submitted a beneficiary designation form; however, since he was married, we understand that his ...
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DWC |

What Is the Deadline to Correct a Failed ADP/ACP Test?

Facts Every couple of years, our 401(k) plan fails the ADP/ACP test by a small margin. Since we don’t always fail the test, gathering our year-end census information to send to our TPA sometimes ...
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DWC |

The Importance of Due Diligence in Choosing a TPA

Choosing a third-party administrator to manage your company's document design, compliance or government reporting services should be based on careful due diligence, rather than on the price of fees, ...
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DWC |

How Do You Correct An Excess Deferral?

Facts Due to a glitch in our payroll system, one of the participants in our 401(k) plan contributed more than the IRS limit last year. It came to light while she was preparing her individual income ...
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DWC |

What Is The Difference Between Fiduciary Liability Insurance and a Fidelity Bond?

Facts My company sponsors a 401(k) plan. With everything that has been in the news about retirement plan fiduciaries and some of the lawsuits against them, we are trying to decide whether or not we ...
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DWC |

When Must Participants Get Their Spouses To Sign-off On Changing 401(k) Elections?

Facts One of our employees recently asked about changing his primary beneficiary on his 401(k) account. The beneficiary form says the participant must obtain the consent of his spouse in order to ...
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DWC |

What Are The Different Types of 401(k) Contributions And How Do They Work?

Facts Our business is considering setting up a 401(k) plan for our employees. We know that it can include both employee contributions and company contributions, but we keep hearing about all sorts of ...
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DWC |

Which 401(k) Plan Fees Can Be Paid Out of Plan Assets?

Facts When we first established our 401(k) plan, the company didn’t have a lot of discretionary income, so we went with a low-cost provider and set it up so the plan would pay for its own fees. We ...
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DWC |

Can Bonuses Be Excluded From Retirement Plan Compensation?

Facts Our company pays a number of different types of bonuses—signing bonuses, spot bonuses, holiday bonuses, production bonuses, etc. You get the idea. We know that bonuses paid once the employee ...
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DWC |

The Better Retirement Plan for Small Business: SEP or 401(k)?

Facts I am self-employed, and my company does not have any employees. Occasionally, my spouse will help out with various projects but does not work for the company full time. It is likely that I will ...
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DWC |

Can We Exclude Seasonal Employees From Our 401(k) Plan?

Facts Our company has a retail store that sells items like patio furniture, swimming pool supplies, and equipment. We also have a department that cleans and services swimming pools. The service ...
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DWC |

DWC on Enterprise Radio: How Selling a Business Can Impact Your Retirement Plan

DWC partner Jen Gibbs Swets recently spoke with Enterprise Radio host Eric Dye to discuss selling a business and the impact it has on retirement planning. Swets, who has more than 15 years of ...
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DWC |

How Should We Handle It If We Accidentally Overfund Our 401(k) Match?

Facts Our company sponsors a safe harbor 401(k) plan with a match, and we also make a profit sharing contribution each year. Our payroll company calculates match and profit sharing contributions ...
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DWC |

Cash Balance Plans 101

You are currently maximizing the contributions to your 401(k) profit sharing plan. While this level of savings is beneficial, you still want to be able to save more, plus you are looking for ...
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DWC |

Starting A New 401(k) Plan? Make Sure You Start On Time

Facts We are planning to establish a new 401(k) plan for our employees. Between getting set up with a recordkeeper, selecting the investment menu, working with our TPA to prepare the plan documents ...
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Adam C. Pozek |

Hardship Distributions Will Soon Be Less of a Hardship

In the wee hours of this morning, Congress passed a spending bill to end the most recent government shutdown that had just begun at midnight. Although the bill was focused on funding the government ...
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DWC |

Should We Split Our 401(k) Plan to Avoid the Annual Audit?

Facts Our company has been growing over the last couple of years, which is a good thing. However, after seeing your last two Questions of the Week (here and here), I am concerned about the need to ...
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DWC |

How Do You Select a CPA for Your Annual 401(k) Audit?

Facts With over 100 participants in our 401(k) plan in 2017, we have learned that our plan will now require an audit each plan year from an Independent Qualified Public Accountant (IQPA). This will ...
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DWC |

When Does My Plan Need An Outside Audit?

Facts We are a small business that has been growing quite a bit in the last couple of years and are now up to about 100 employees. Our company has a 401(k) plan and most of the employees who are ...
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DWC |

DWC in Business News Daily: Tax Policy Changes in 2018

As we move into the new year, Business News Daily's Adam Uzialko advises businesses to stay up to date on new regulatory policies and debates.
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DWC |

How Should a Plan Sponsor Handle Required Minimum Distributions For Missing or Nonresponsive Participants?

Facts One of our employees retired on July 31, 2017 at age 73. During her tenure with the company she was an active participant in the 401(k) plan, accumulating a balance while having never taken a ...
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DWC |

DWC in Bloomberg: Pension Funds and Bitcoin Futures

Regulated exchanges such as the Chicago Board Options Exchange, CME Group, and Nasdaq are either already trading or planning to trade bitcoin futures, an asset that is known to be particularly ...
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DWC |

DWC in Kiplinger: Leveraging a Backdoor Roth IRA

If Roth IRAs offer a legitimate long-term savings strategy by allowing people to generate tax-free income, why do less than a third of IRA investors have such an account? The short answer is income ...
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DWC |

Can I Keep My Retirement Plan After I Sell My Business?

Facts I recently sold my business, and all of my employees went to work for the buyer. My goal is to continue working for a period of time, but I do not expect to hire any more employees.
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DWC |

Cash Balance Chart

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DWC |

DWC in BenefitsPRO: Tax Bill Might Affect 401(k) Offerings

The reconciliation of the tax reform bills working their way through Congress is prompting retirement industry experts to speak up. Many are expressing concern that the unintended consequence of the ...
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DWC |

How Do I Set Up an Individual 401(k) Plan?

Facts I am self-employed, and my business is doing well. As a result, I would like to setup a retirement plan so that I can not only set aside some income for retirement but also to help with my ...
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DWC |

Is Your 401(k) Required to Have a QDIA?

Facts Like many 401(k) plans, ours allows employees to decide where to invest their accounts among a menu of approximately 20 different mutual funds. For employees who do not make an investment ...
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DWC |

Do 401(k) Testing Requirement Apply to Owner-Only Plans?

Facts I and my three business partners each own 25% of our company. We do not have any employees other than the four of us. We would like to set up a retirement plan, but we know there are ...
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DWC |

How Do We Report a Plan Merger on Form 5500?

Facts Our company sponsors two separate 401(k) plans, each of which covers a different group of our employees. Due to some internal changes, we now want to merge those plans so that we only have a ...
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DWC |

DWC Continues Expansion, Adds Jennifer Gibbs Swets as Partner

ST PAUL, Minn. – October 31, 2017 – DWC – The 401(k) Experts, an industry leader in providing 401(k) plan compliance and defined benefit and consulting services, has expanded its team by adding ...
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DWC |

What's the Difference Between 401(k) Transfers and Rollovers?

Facts Our company sponsors two separate 401(k) plans. One covers salaried employees, and the other one covers hourly-paid employees. From time to time, employees change from hourly to salaried and ...
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DWC |

DWC in Kiplinger: Three Common 401(k) Problems and How to Avoid Them

Participants could potentially be losing a portion of their retirement savings due to some tricky 401(k) administrative issues. In a recent article for Kiplinger, DWC Managing Partner Keith Clark ...
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DWC |

ASPPA Inaugurates DWC Partner Adam Pozek as 49th President

ST PAUL, Minn. – October 23, 2017 - The American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries (ASPPA) inaugurated Adam C. Pozek, QPA, QKA, CPFA, as the new President of the organization during ...
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DWC |

The 2018 Retirement Plan Contribution Limits Are Here

The IRS has released the 2018 contribution limits! Since not everyone was awaiting them quite as eagerly as we were, here is a quick summary.
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DWC |

DOL and IRS Audits: How DWC's Annual ERISA Compliance Review Helps Plan Sponsors

Our first piece of advice for audited plan sponsors? Don't panic.
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DWC |

What Are 401(k) Plan Forfeitures and How Can They Be Used?

Facts We have a 401(k) plan that includes several different types of contributions—employee deferrals, a company-provided safe harbor match, and a profit sharing contribution. The plan has a 6-year ...
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DWC |

Does Your Third Party Administrator Make a Big First Impression?

Service providers are judged by by many factors and one of the most important is managing to zero service issues. And considering how important plan compliance is, issues with plan compliance via a ...
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DWC |

When Can We Change Our ADP/ACP Testing Method?

Facts We have a 401(k) plan that allows for both employee deferrals and a company match. Our annual testing each year is based on the amounts contributed in the previous year. That has allowed us to ...
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DWC |

Why Compliance Services Are Important for a Plan Sponsor

Retirement plan compliance is a big deal to the IRS. After all, the tax deductions that both plan sponsors and participants receive each year for contributions to retirement plans surpass deductions ...
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DWC |

Who Must Receive Retirement Plan Blackout Notices?

Facts We have selected a new recordkeeper for our 401(k) plan. We are told that there will be a period of eight business days when our participants are not able to log in and manage their accounts. ...
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DWC |

Retirement Plan Termination: Are There Special Rules for Paying Out Account Balances?

Facts The owner of our company is retiring next year, and the business will close as a result. We sponsor a 401(k) plan that we know we need to terminate, and we want to get started right away so ...
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DWC |

Is There a Specific Format or Required Content for a Beneficiary Designation Form?

Facts A participant in our retirement plan just passed away. When we were reviewing our files, we were glad to see that he had completed a beneficiary designation form. On closer review, however, we ...
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DWC |

DWC in Bloomberg BNA: Bitcoin Too Risky for 401(k)s?

"Bitcoin may be the hottest thing going in the investment world, but 401(k) plan participants aren’t likely to see it on their regular investment menus anytime soon," writes Jasmine Ye Han in ...
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Lori Reay |

DWC Merges With Hawkins Retirement – A Message From the Hawkins Perspective

It's official: DWC is uniting with Hawkins Retirement, a Utah-based firm that provides comparable 401(k) plan compliance, defined benefit services, and consulting services (third-party plan ...
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DWC |

Should We Deny a 401(k) Loan Based on an Expectation of an Employee’s Termination?

Facts One of the participants in our 401(k) plan just applied for a loan for $25,000. He has enough in his account to support the loan, but there is a bit of a wrinkle. We are planning to reorganize ...
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DWC |

DWC in FiduciaryNews: The Rise and Fall of Corporate Pension Plans

"Much has been written lamenting the near extinction of the corporate pension plan," Chris Carosa writes in a book excerpt posted to FiduciaryNews.com. "Are reports shaded by rose-colored glasses? ...
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DWC |

Can a Company Owner Withdraw More than the Required Minimum Distribution After Age 70 1/2?

This QOTW has been updated to reflect changes made by the SECURE Act, which was signed into law on December 20, 2019. Participants who were born on or before July 1, 1949, are required to start ...
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DWC |

DWC in Human Resource Executive Online: All About Exchange-Traded Fund Assets

If exchange-traded fund assets are hot among individual investors, why are employers slow to add them as an option for employees?
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DWC |

Do 401(k) Plan Eligibility Rules Apply to Part-Time Employees?

Facts Our 401(k) plan requires employees to work for us for six months before they become eligible to join. Pretty much all of our employees have been full time and have worked continuous, ...
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DWC |

DWC in 401(k) Specialist: Trends to Watch in Plan Service

"The 401(k) service sector has evolved considerably since its introduction in the Revenue Act of 1978," writes DWC Partner Keith Clark in 401(k) Specialist.
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DWC |

Does Adding an Automatic Escalation Option Require a Plan Document Amendment?

Facts We have considered automatic enrollment for our 401(k) plan but have, thus far, decided not to implement it. However, for our employees that do sign up to defer, we would like to offer them a ...
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DWC |

Do We Need an IRS Favorable Determination Letter for Former Employees to Roll Over Their Balances?

Facts We recently processed a rollover from our 401(k) plan for a former employee who wants to roll her balance into her new employer’s plan. Shortly after the payment was processed, the former ...
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DWC |

DWC in FiduciaryNews: 401(k) Rollovers and Roth IRAs

"To Roth or Not to Roth," that is the title question of Christopher Carosa's latest FiduciaryNews.com article about 401(k) rollovers.
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DWC |

Can We Split QDRO Fees Between Participant and Ex-Spouse?

Facts We have a participant who is going through a divorce and told us that he will be submitting a Qualified Domestic Relations Order to assign a portion of his 401(k) account to his ex-spouse. It ...
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DWC |

DWC in PLANADVISER: New Comparability Plans

More and more small, professional companies are interested in new comparability, or cross-tested, plans.
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DWC |

Can I Pre-Fund a Matching Contribution for a Participant Who Terminated Employment?

Facts Our company sponsors a safe harbor 401(k) plan that provides for a dollar-for-dollar match up to 4% of pay. At the end of each year, we calculate the total matching contribution, and we usually ...
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DWC |

Can I Add a Personal SEP IRA to My Company's 401(k) Plan?

Facts Our firm sponsors a 401(k) plan that includes a 3% of pay safe harbor contribution. The plan also includes a profit sharing provision, but the only company contribution we usually make is the ...
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DWC |

Welcome to the New DWC

Notice we didn't say new website. Though it's true the site is brand new—redesigned and reconfigured from top to bottom for you—that's not the most important thing that's changed.
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DWC |

Form 5330 FAQs

What is form 5330? The Form 5330 has one job – to accompany remittances of certain excise taxes that are associated with qualified retirement plans and 403(b) plans.
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DWC |

Related Companies: Controlled Groups FAQs

It seems that businesses of all sizes are more frequently being structured using multiple companies and/or that business owners are acquiring interests in other companies. With the implementation of ...
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DWC |

Plan Eligibility

Companies that sponsor retirement plans have a great deal of flexibility in determining who is eligible for those plans. However, since plans are always required to follow the terms outlined in their ...
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DWC |

DWC in the Wall Street Journal: Target-Date Funds

Even as target date funds have become staples in 401(k) investment menus, there continue to be questions about their appropriateness as participants approach retirement age. Is the target date meant ...
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DWC |

DWC in U.S. News & World Report: 401(k) Brokerage Options

Once primarily the domain of 401(k) plans of professional organizations such as law firms or medical practices, the self-directed brokerage window has become a more common option in plans sponsored ...
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DWC |

Nondiscrimination Testing: Compensation Ratio Test

The compensation ratio test is one of several nondiscrimination tests a plan must satisfy in order to remain compliant with IRS rules. The term “compensation” can seem uncomplicated; however, when we ...
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DWC |

Nondiscrimination Testing Overview

When creating the retirement plan system, Congress included significant tax benefits as an incentive for employers to put plans in place and for employees to save for their own retirement. It was ...
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DWC |

Nondiscrimination Testing: Top Heavy Determination

The top heavy determination is one of the nondiscrimination tests required by the IRS to ensure plans do not disproportionately favor certain owners and officers.
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DWC |

Nondiscrimination Testing: Minimum Coverage Test

The minimum coverage test is one of several nondiscrimination tests a plan must satisfy in order to remain compliant with IRS rules. There are two versions of the test: the ratio percentage test and ...
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DWC |

Compliance Deadlines for Calendar Year Plans

January 31 | Forms 1099-R to the Participants The custodian/directed trustee of the plan generally delivers the 1099-Rs directly to the participants. Note that some custodians deliver the 1099-R ...
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DWC |

Form 8955-SSA FAQs

What information is required to be reported on the Form 8955-SSA? The form requires the plan sponsor to report any participant who terminated in a prior year and is still due a vested benefit from ...
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DWC |

ERISA Fidelity Bonds FAQs

What is a fidelity bond? Also known as a surety bond, a fidelity bond is a special type of insurance that protects a company-sponsored retirement plan from losses due to misuse or misappropriation of ...
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DWC |

Required Minimum Distributions FAQs

What are required minimum distributions (RMDs)? When a taxpayer reaches age a certain age, he or she must begin withdrawing minimum amounts from all tax-favored retirement accounts each year. This ...
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DWC |

Timeless Tips for Selecting Plan Service Providers

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DWC |

How Does My Investment Professional Get Paid?

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DWC |

Plan Corrections: When Bad Things Happen to Good Plans

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DWC |

Form 5500 FAQs

The Form 5500 is an information return that is filed, usually with the Department of Labor, each year to provide certain details about the operations and financial status of an employee benefit plan. ...
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DWC |

Hardship Distributions

Plan sponsors have the option to allow participants to access their accounts while still employed via a plan loan or an in-service distribution. However, some companies prefer to limit that access so ...
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Adam C. Pozek |

What's Old Is New Again

Whether we’re talking fashion or music or architecture or barber shops, it seems things that have faded from existence eventually come back around. See if this cycle looks familiar: cutting edge ...
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Adam C. Pozek |

Exactly the Same but Completely Different

At the end of August, I made my first trip to Burning Man, an annual event held in the Black Rock Desert of northern Nevada. With 10 guiding principles, it involves art, music and free-spiritedness. ...
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Adam C. Pozek |

Don’t Be The Next Target for a Data Breach

The TJX Companies, Target, and AT&T are just three of the big names to have been victims of massive data breaches in which sensitive personal and financial information was compromised. Although ...
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Adam C. Pozek |

SchoolHouse Rock Meets The 401(k) Plan

When I was kid, I used to love Schoolhouse Rock during the commercial breaks of Saturday morning cartoons. Even now, I have them all on DVD as well as a CD of covers by various rock musicians, and I ...
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Adam C. Pozek |

Accidents Will Happen

If you’ve spent any time working with retirement plans, you know how complicated they can be. It seems like every rule has an exception and an exception to that exception. It is no wonder that ...
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Adam C. Pozek |

What You Thought You Knew About Revenue Sharing

Ever see the movie Men In Black? One of my favorite lines is when Tommy Lee Jones says to Will Smith, “Fifteen hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred ...
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Adam C. Pozek |

Happy MEP-morial Day From The DOL

Back in March, Assistant Secretary of Labor Phyllis Borzi testified before a Senate committee, expressing concern about whether open MEPs can be treated as single plans under ERISA since there is no ...
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Adam C. Pozek |

Mark Twain, Elves and Real Estate in 401(k) Plans | Part 2

In Part 1 of this post, I discussed some of the DOL rules that can make real estate not all it’s cracked up to be as a 401(k) investment. Here in Part 2, we will take look at some IRS wrenches that ...
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Adam C. Pozek |

Mark Twain, Elves and Real Estate in 401(k) Plans | Part 1

“Real estate doesn't interest me. It's no doubt a great flaw in my personality, but I can't think in terms of boundaries. Those imaginary lines are as unreal to me as elves and pixies.” -- Kurt ...
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Adam C. Pozek |

Your Tax-Exempt Status Has Just Been Revoked!

It’s funny how the human brain (or maybe it’s just my brain) forms associations with words or phrases. Whenever I hear the word “revoked,” I immediately think of a scene from one of the Lethal Weapon ...
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Adam C. Pozek |

Are You Kidding? The Fall Will Probably Kill You!

My good friend and benefits attorney Ilene Ferenczy sends out an e-newsletter from time-to-time. The Ferenczy Flash always includes timely, practical information for plan sponsors and service ...
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Adam C. Pozek |

Werewolves of Pension

I was recently asked to write an article on ERISA Section 404(c). As I contemplated how to approach the article, I recalled many situations in which I have heard 404(c) pitched as the mythical silver ...
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Adam C. Pozek |

Reasonableness Requirement Is Not New

An article appeared yesterday on CFO.com entitled “New 401(k) Obligations Heaped on CFOs” and it carried a tagline stating “New disclosure rules abound, but pay close attention or you could be sued ...
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Adam C. Pozek |

What’s The Problem With PTINs?

I must confess that I have been very surprised by the vocal opposition to the new Preparer Tax Identification Number (PTIN) requirements.
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Adam C. Pozek |

403(b) Plan Termination: Fact or Fiction?

Over the last several years, the answer has been a little of both. Beginning with the 2009 effective date of the IRS overhaul to the 403(b) regulations, it was establised that 403(b) plans could, ...
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Adam C. Pozek |

Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy…Not When It Comes To Retirement Plans

Qualified plans are complicated beasts regardless of size or design. This truth is sometimes forgotten at this time of year when sponsors and service-providers are busy dealing with nondiscrimination ...
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Adam C. Pozek |

Confession Is Good For The Soul…And The Checkbook

Over the last few weeks, I have spoken with at least four plan sponsors who just became aware that they missed the April 30, 2010 deadline to restate their plan documents for EGTRRA. For those in ...
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Adam C. Pozek |

Is It Time to Reinvent the 401(k) or Our Expectations of It?

2009 was a tough year for the 401(k) plan. From the Time cover story [Stephen Gandel, "Why It's Time to Retire the 401(k)," Time, 174(15): 28–34] to the pages of this journal [Teresa Ghilarducci, "If ...
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Adam C. Pozek |

The Plan Document – More Like Guidelines or Actual Rules?

As the EGTRRA restatement window closes for pre-approved DC plans and begins to open for pre-approved DB plans, I thought I would pontificate on the importance of the plan document. Qualified plans ...
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Adam C. Pozek |

Weighing In on the 3(21) vs. 3(38) Debate

Several weeks ago, I had a lengthy conversation with a prospective client (we’ll call her Alice) and her investment advisor. After the standard dialogue about fees, service guarantees, etc., the ...
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Adam C. Pozek |

In Search of the Elusive Non-ERISA 403(b)

Crikey! We’ve just discovered the rare non-ERISA 403(b) plan meandering along, oblivious to such details as filing Form 5500 or worrying about fiduciary responsibility. Wait…could it be this harmless ...
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Adam C. Pozek |

The Quest for Quality & Unconflicted Expertise

In the last few days, there have been several new media reports of professional wrongdoing. One describes a CPA suspended for preparing a false tax return. Another alleges a TPA firm provided ...
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Adam C. Pozek |

Rethinking Participant Direction of 401(k) Investments

As an industry, we have spent a great deal of time over the last 2 years discussing issues like investment advice, default investments and fiduciary responsibility ostensibly for the purpose of ...
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Adam C. Pozek |

Will Annuities Save The Planet?

The recent market downturn has stirred much debate about the ability of the 401(k) plan to provide adequate retirement income. One proposed solution to the perceived failure of the country’s most ...
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Adam C. Pozek |

Is Cheapest Always Best?

This was the subject of quite a lengthy debate in an online, 401(k)-related discussion group a little while back. It quickly amassed quite a few comments. While the discussion took a few twists and ...
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