Unraveling Retirement Industry Insights: Trends and Updates
In the ever-evolving landscape of retirement planning, it's crucial to remain informed about the latest industry trends. To help you stay ahead of the curve, we've compiled a succinct overview of key insights.
SECURE 2.0 - WHAT WE ARE HEARING
“No Demand from Retirement Plan Sponsors”. That’s what we are hearing from recordkeepers on the following items:
Emergency Savings Account – As we survey recordkeepers, many are suggesting that developing an in-plan Emergency Savings Account solution is not a high priority as several already have some solutions outside of the plan. We would suggest you work with your provider to see if they have an out-of-plan option you can establish and campaigns to help educate employees how to set up that emergency savings account.
Student Loan Debt Solutions – As with Emergency Saving Account’s, several recordkeepers are leaning towards outside-of-the-plan solutions and not investing resources in in-plan options. Several recordkeepers can already handle the student loan programs, but not all.
Roth Matching Contributions – We are not seeing much interest from sponsors on adopting this, so we are not expecting recordkeepers and payroll providers to put this high on their list of priorities. If your plan offers a Roth in-plan conversion feature, participants can achieve the same result and most recordkeepers can handle this provision.
GUARANTEED RETIREMENT INCOME
According to the 2023 401(k) Participant Study conducted by Charles Schwab, 46% of baby boomers are looking for help creating an income stream in retirement. Guaranteed Retirement Income, while it has been discussed for some time, is still in its infancy. We are conducting our due diligence on these solutions and anticipate better programs to be released. If you would like to discuss this further, please let me know.
2023 YEAR-END DEADLINES
A friendly reminder: sponsors are running out of time to initiate safe harbor amendments in order to distribute participant notices on time. If you are interested in adopting this provision and need assistance, please let me know.
LONG-TERM PART-TIME EMPLOYEES
If you exclude any employees below 500 hours, you will have to allow them to defer into your plan. We do not anticipate recordkeepers to help with these provisions. To avoid compliance issues, one solution would be to amend the plan document to eliminate hours of service requirement for participants. If you exclude participation in salary deferrals to participants until they meet a specific requirement, you should contact your advisor and legal counsel to determine the best way to address this new requirement for 2024/2025 and forward.