401(k) Q&A | Plan & Industry Content From DWC - The 401(k) Experts

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

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

DWC 10/20/20

DWC 401(k) Q&A: Simplifying Plan Eligibility Determinations

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 employees become eligible. Some of our staff are salaried, while others are hourly. We have both part-time and full-time employees, and we are also ...

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

DWC 08/27/20

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, with that creativity comes added layers of testing and compliance to concern yourself with. And, if you sponsor a safe harbor plan, those rules can ...

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

DWC 05/28/20

DWC 401(k) Q&A Correction of the Quarter: Retroactively Decided Not to Make Safe Harbor Contributions for HCEs?

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 employees (HCEs) relative to the non-HCEs. Second, a plan sponsor must be very careful about how and when it implements or removes benefits from the plan. ...

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

DWC 03/13/20

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 problem when it comes to 401(k) plans. Well, as usual, the devil’s in the details, so we thought it was worth diving into what happens when this is a ...

What Does Safe Harbor Mean, Exactly?

DWC 05/28/19

QOTW - 5.28.2019 - What Does Safe Habor Mean Exactly - Plan Compliance

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 something about our deferral deposits fitting within the safe harbor deadline. Now I’m just confused.

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

DWC 05/21/19

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 changed our company’s fiscal year to follow the calendar year and didn’t think to notify our TPA to discuss the impact to the Plan. Now, they are ...

Are Missed Deferrals and Late Deferral Deposits the Same Thing?

DWC 05/14/19

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 enroll Jane in the plan until she asked about it a couple months later. We assume that we need to make some sort of correction, and we’ve done some ...

DWC News Update: The IRS Helps Those Who Help Themselves

DWC 04/22/19

The IRS Helps Those Who Help Themselves_News Update_Blog Header Image

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 Correction Program (VCP) a year or so ago, the IRS has responded to industry requests (that DWC representatives helped draft) by now allowing plan ...

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

DWC 09/11/18

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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