The Daily Brief for Benefits Professionals
BenefitsWire
Retirement Plans
August 18, 2026
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8 items · ~2 min read
Top of the Brief
Trump Account Rules Ease Path as Small Employers Face Slow Start“Press Coverage August 17, 2026 Jeffery R. Banish Jeff Banish, a partner in Troutman Pepper Locke’s Employee Benefits + Executive Compensation Practice Group, was quoted in the August 17, 2026, Bloomberg Law article, “Trump Account Rules Ease Path as Small Employers Face Slow Start.”
In this issue
Regulatory Action and Guidance (2) · Litigation (1) · General Benefits (4) · Retirement Plans (1)
Regulatory Action and Guidance
2 items“I.R.S. Notice 2026-49, August 12, 2026 In an ongoing effort to modernize and streamline the administration of retirement assets, the Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) have issued Notice 2026-49. Published in response to a congressional mandate, this notice marks a significant step toward standardizing the administrative processes that govern the movement of retirement savings. Specifically, Section 324 of Division T of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023, Pub. L. 117-328, 136 Stat. 4459 (2022), known as the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (SECURE 2.0 Act), directs the Secretary of the Treasury to “develop and issue guidance, in the form of sample forms (including” MORE >>
Source: currentfederaltaxdevelopments.com
The Federal Register will publish a notice regarding the annual certification for Multiemployer Defined Benefit Plans, signaling ongoing regulatory attention to these plans. MORE >>
Source: Federal Register
Litigation
1 item“A Minnesota federal judge allowed claims of target-date-fund imprudence and self-dealing to proceed, while narrowing other theories.” MORE >>
Source: PLANSPONSOR
General Benefits
4 items“Beginning in 2026, participants whose prior-year FICA wages exceeded $150,000 in 2025 (indexed for inflation in later years) must make any catch-up contributions on a Roth basis rather than a pre-tax basis. While many employers have worked closely with payroll providers and recordkeepers to implement the new rules, errors can still occur, and we have started to get these calls from clients regarding what to do next when an error is detected. If you discover that a participant who was subject to the mandatory Roth catch-up requirement instead made catch-up contributions on a pre-tax basis, the good news is that the final regulations provide a correction framework as long as you elected the de” MORE >>
Source: Bricker Graydon
“Retirement plan sponsors are under increasing pressure to regularly review how benefits are calculated and administered. A recent court ruling found that the use of outdated actuarial assumptions and mortality data can result in Employee Retirement Income Security Act violations.” MORE >>
Source: Employee Benefit News
“Across all small businesses, just 19% offered a retirement plan in 2019. That has risen to 31% in 2026—an increase of 64%—according to a report by Gusto economists. Using administrative payroll data to track active retirement plan use, the research shows how access to retirement has changed since 2019, led mainly by expansion in industries that historically did not have retirement benefits and among people who work for hourly pay instead of an annual salary.” MORE >>
Source: 401(k) Specialist
[Retirement Plans]
Trump Account Rules Ease Path as Small Employers Face Slow Start“Press Coverage August 17, 2026 Jeffery R. Banish Jeff Banish, a partner in Troutman Pepper Locke’s Employee Benefits + Executive Compensation Practice Group, was quoted in the August 17, 2026, Bloomberg Law article, “Trump Account Rules Ease Path as Small Employers Face Slow Start.” MORE >>
Source: Troutman Pepper Locke
Retirement Plans
1 item[General Benefits]
Are Mandatory Contributions Subject to the Section 415 Additions Limit?“Experts from Groom Law Group and CAPTRUST answer questions concerning retirement plan administration and regulations.” MORE >>
Source: PLANSPONSOR
Also of Note
- The Asset Class Hiding in Plain Sight — “For years, Emerging Markets (EM) local currency debt has been one of the most misunderstood segments of the fixed-income market.” (NCPERS)