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 bring the best of those conversations to you, still with a touch of geekiness but also distilled into easily digested, bite-sized pieces.
This is our busiest time of the year as we prepare our Annual ERISA Compliance Reviews for calendar year plans. It is a great time to connect with our clients and their investment advisors to discuss the past year and look forward to what lies ahead. - As originally published in our Q1 2019 newsletter. Didn't get it? Sign up here.
Plan sponsors are definitely getting more consistent with depositing deferrals timely. From our perspective, three variables seem to drive these improvements:
The most common issues this year are oldies but goodies:
We are excited to announce that we will be rolling out administrative fiduciary services later this year. As most of you know, we stand behind the quality of our work. In fact, we are one of the few firms that does not limit the time clients have to notify us if they think there might be an error. As a service provider, either we are responsible for our work or we aren’t – putting a time limit in a service contract is not backing up your work. Our fiduciary services will supplement our Annual ERISA Compliance Review, including quarterly reports that address many common action items (such as RMDs, loan defaults and mandatory cash-outs). We will also provide a thumbs up or thumbs down on hardship distribution requests as well as provide payroll support services. Stay tuned for more in the coming months.
We are also eagerly awaiting final regulations from the Department of Labor that will expand the availability of multiple employer plans. We are not expecting the DOL to throw the doors wide open to so-called “open MEPs” but it certainly looks like they will relax availability for PEOs, chambers of commerce and other associations. (Looking for context? Check out our MEPs: Dialing Down the Noise webinar on demand here.)
There continues to be talk in Washington, DC about new laws that would impact retirement plans. However, since bi-partisanship continues to be illusory and rapidly deteriorates when it does make a rare appearance, the prospects for any sort of sweeping changes seem remote at this stage. Of course, we always have our eye on things and will keep you posted.