• Audit third quarter payroll and plan deposit dates to ensure compliance with the Department of Labor’s rules regarding timely deposit of participant contributions and loan
• Verify that employees who became eligible for the plan between July 1 and September 30 received and returned an enrollment Follow up for forms that were not returned.
• For calendar year safe harbor plans, issue the required notice to employees during October or November (within 30–90 days of the beginning of the plan year to which the safe harbor is to apply). Also, within the same period, distribute the appropriate notice if the plan features an EACA (Eligible Automatic Contribution Arrangement), QACA (Qualified Automatic Contribution Arrangement), and/or QDIA (Qualified Default Investment Alternative).

If your plan does not hold much money in assets, the ERISA enforcement agencies have bigger fish to fry.

However, that does not mean you won’t find yourself in the frying pan. All it may take is one participant complaint — or even none in the event of random chance — and you could find yourself subject to a plan review by the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA). That’s when the fun begins.

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Have you ever been in a situation where you are trying to balance your own finances while having to shell out money to everyone else?

The reality is that more and more people are facing difficult family challenges, and that becomes far more emotional if you are being impacted financially. Those hit the hardest are the ‘Sandwich Generation’—the generation trapped between financially providing for their own children, as well as themselves and also taking responsibility for providing financial assistance to their elderly parents.

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Low cost, indexed exchange traded funds (ETFs) are improving access to what many investors are asking for — sustainable investing strategies that integrate the analysis of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors into the investment process and portfolio. Historically, ESG funds have had higher expenses due to the extra research that managers need to conduct on companies. However, as more money flows into ESG strategies, the companies that create ESG indexes are able to lower fees. A growing awareness of the benefits of ESG investment factors is also adding to investor demand.

We know that emotion plays a role in money, and therefore retirement. Here are a few ways employers can help employees offset less-than-rational emotion and thus make better decisions about their retirements.

Behavioral economics have been the subject of much discussion in recent years, as you know. Money is a deeply personal subject for most people, and we often view it as a big factor in our (more…)

To enjoy a comfortable retirement, you may need to balance multiple types of income streams in your portfolio. This could help you achieve the most advantageous mix of investment growth, income and tax control that’s appropriate to your risk tolerance, income horizon, and goals. These streams can come from the following sources: (more…)

There are many employees who when they leave their job, take a lump sum distribution from their 401(k) accounts. How can an employer help transient employees prepare for the future?According to the January Current Population Survey (CPS) from the US Census Bureau, as cited in an Employee Benefits Research Institute (EBRI) issue brief, Trends in Employee Tenure, 1983-2018, February 28, 2019, over the past 35 years, a five-year employment tenure is about average number of years an employee stays at their job.

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