Plan Sponsor Requirements

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The retirement plan landscape is ever evolving. We distill the details so you don’t have to!

We’ve corralled the best news from inside the beltway – not only regulations, but also new legislation from Congress as well as relevant guidance from the IRS and Department of Labor. In true DWC fashion, we don’t just repackage a recitation of the rules, we provide our thoughts and commentary about what those rules mean to you.

We know cash balance rules can be intimidating! Settle into the Cash Balance Corner and let us break it down for you.

Have 401(k) questions? We have 401(k) answers! We bring you answers to many of the common questions we receive.

A behind-the-scenes look not at how the sausage is made, but why we make it the way we do. (Hint: It’s all about the best interests of the client.)

We’re all about learning from other people’s (alleged) mistakes. We might not be attorneys, but we still follow benefits-related cases and summarize lessons and key take-aways. No hourly fee needed for these insights!

A deeper dive into retirement plan topics doesn’t have to be headache-inducing. Our Pension Primer articles provide depth of information without depth of jargon!

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The 2025 Retirement Plan Contribution Limits

Extra! Extra! The IRS has released the 2025 contribution limits.
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Employee Benefit Plan Record Retention

Employee Benefit Plan Record Retention
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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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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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Articles & Insights Home

Hiring a new service provider? 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 ...
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The 2024 Retirement Plan Contribution Limits

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

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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How Does My Investment Professional Get Paid?

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