Promote your plan with our "Ready for Retirement?" poster and flyer
The start of the school year is a great time to remind your employees of the importance of saving for retirement through your 403(b) plan—PlanConnect's new poster and flyer can help you do just that.
You can use the poster and/or flyer by themselves to promote your plan, as handouts at benefit fairs, or as part of a new hire/orientation meeting package. As you know, the IRS requires that all eligible employees are given a “meaningful opportunity” to participate in your 403(b) plan; these materials can play an important role in demonstrating that you have the appropriate educational activities in place to satisfy this requirement.
Annual meaningful notice mailing
IRS 403(b) regulations require you to provide your employees with an annual notice of their right to participate in your 403(b) plan. Each year, PlanConnect sends a copy of this notice to your employees as part of our plan administration services.
We will be mailing out 2015 notices to your employees on August 7th. They will be sent by USPS mail to all employees on your most recent census file. If a notice is returned as undeliverable, we will perform an extensive search to locate the employee and resend the notice. These efforts will be tracked and documented in our system for future reference, if needed.
DOL proposes changes to its fiduciary rule
On April 14, 2015, The U.S. Department of Labor issued a proposed rule that would broaden the definition of "who is a fiduciary" in relation to ERISA retirement plans and (a new development) IRAs. This change is directed at the financial services industry with a particular focus on advice and recommendations regarding IRA rollovers.
If you sponsor a 403(b) plan for public school employees or a governmental 457(b) plan—i.e., your plan is not subject to ERISA—then the proposed rule would apply to advice being given to participants only in connection with rollovers to IRAs or ERISA plans. Otherwise, if it is finalized in its proposed form, we expect it will have little, if any, affect on your plan's operations or investment education efforts.
If your plan is subject to ERISA, the proposed rule could affect many of your plan's vendors and how members of the financial services industry provide services to your plan. The extent to which these relationships and services change will depend on the final rule—when issued—and your specific vendor relationships.
The DOL has indicated that any final rule would be effective 60 days after its publication in the Federal Register and the requirements of the final rule would generally become applicable eight months after its publication date. We will keep you posted on developments in this area.
Please contact your relationship manager or PlanConnect (800-923-6669; info@planconnect.com), if you have questions regarding any of the items covered above.
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