Plan Corrections

Retirement plan administration has become significantly more complex. As employees change jobs more frequently, it becomes harder to consistently and accurately apply plan terms, operations, and payroll procedures to new hires, rehires, seasonal employees, and long-term part- time employees, for example.

Meanwhile, the desire for greater flexibility has resulted in a complicated array of contribution options, distribution options, and loan provisions, which further complicates the annual audit, Form 5500, and other required filings and disclosures.

In addition, greater dependence on pre-approved plans means that plan sponsors must navigate complicated plan documents (including provisions inapplicable to their plans) and try to make sense of retroactive plan amendments requiring signatures years after plan changes became operationally effective.

As a result of the additional complexity, plan operational mistakes have become much more common. In addition, plan audits have become more intense, which leads to more frequent discovery of late employee contributions and commonly causes late Form 5500 and annual audit report filings. This puts pressure on human resources departments, benefits teams, and payroll staff to identify, correct, and sometimes report mistakes relating to a host of issues.

There is good news on two fronts. First, over the last decade, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Department of Labor (DOL) have expanded their correction programs and become more vocal in encouraging plan sponsors and other fiduciaries to self-identify and self-correct plan errors. Second, Fiduciary Law Center has a team of attorneys with the practical experience to guide plan sponsors and other fiduciaries through those programs.

Fiduciary Law Center’s team of attorneys has extensive experience with the programs available for corrections:

Our team will navigate those programs to assist with plan errors of all kinds, including those relating to: