The Daily Brief for Benefits Professionals
BenefitsWire
Retirement Plans
August 25, 2026
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10 items · ~3 min read
Top of the Brief
When Are Innovative 401(k) Strategies (Really) Ready for Broad Use?“Defined contribution investing is entering a more consequential phase. Private markets, guaranteed income, customized target-date strategies, managed accounts and hybrid investment structures offer meaningful possibilities for improving retirement outcomes.”
In this issue
Regulatory Action and Guidance (2) · Retirement Plans (4) · General Benefits (2) · Health & Welfare Plans (1) · Litigation (1)
Regulatory Action and Guidance
2 items“The Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) recently issued proposed regulations updating the minimum funding rules for single-employer defined benefit pension plans under Internal Revenue Code section 430 (“Section 430”). 91 Fed. Reg. 53803 (Aug. 20, 2026). The proposed rule would implement several statutory changes made by the Worker, Retiree, and Employer Recovery Act of 2008 (“WRERA”), the SECURE Act, and SECURE 2.0 that have not yet been incorporated into the existing regulations, while also addressing several technical issues that have since arisen.” MORE >>
Source: Groom Law Group
“Employers that adopt a newly approved Cycle 4 DC qualified pre-approved plan by September 30, 2028, will be considered to have adopted the plan timely within the Cycle 4 remedial amendment period. The September 30, 2028, deadline is expected to be the same for all employers, and the adoption window is designed to give most employers the time needed to complete both the adoption of the plan and the application for an individual IRS determination letter, if applicable.” MORE >>
Source: Milliman
Retirement Plans
4 items“Defined contribution investing is entering a more consequential phase. Private markets, guaranteed income, customized target-date strategies, managed accounts and hybrid investment structures offer meaningful possibilities for improving retirement outcomes.” MORE >>
Source: American Retirement Association
“The same principle can apply to plan sponsors. The contract can be terminated. Competitors can submit bids. A fiduciary committee retains the legal authority to make a change. Yet the more deeply a provider becomes embedded, the greater the practical cost of exercising that authority becomes. Years of accumulated data, technology integrations, established procedures, employee familiarity, and institutional knowledge can steadily raise the barrier to change.” MORE >>
Source: Fiduciary News
[General Benefits]
Is Auto Enrollment Required in a 401(k) Replacing a Terminated 403(b) Plan?“Generally, yes. A newly established 401(k) plan that replaces a terminated 403(b) plan would be subject to SECURE 2.0’s mandatory automatic enrollment requirements, including the requirement to operate as an Eligible Automatic Contribution Arrangement (“EACA”), unless an exemption applies. The EACA provision generally requires the new 401(k) plan to have auto enrollment, even if the terminated 403(b) plan lacked such a provision.” MORE >>
Source: PLANSPONSOR
“Plan sponsors seeking to provide their participants with guaranteed income in retirement may find what they are looking for in the new wave of defined benefit plans gaining steam.” MORE >>
Source: PLANSPONSOR
General Benefits
2 items“Cyber incidents now carry consequences that extend well beyond technical disruption. They create fiduciary exposure, reputational risk, benefit-continuity threats and erosion of member trust — all squarely within the oversight responsibilities of pension boards. The evolution of cyber risk from an operational concern to a fiduciary one is not theoretical. It is already playing out across the public pension landscape. That urgency is increasing as artificial intelligence (AI) and automation lower the time, skill and marginal cost required for malicious actors to launch phishing, credential-harvesting, social-engineering and reconnaissance campaigns at scale.” MORE >>
Source: Segal
[Retirement Plans]
The (Final) Regs Are Yet to Come: What Employers Should Know About Contributions to Trump Accounts“The Treasury Department recently issued proposed regulations providing long-awaited guidance on employer contributions to Trump Accounts under Internal Revenue Code Section 128.” MORE >>
Source: JD Supra
Health & Welfare Plans
1 item[Regulatory Action and Guidance]
White House Issues Executive Order on Childhood Vaccine Recommendations“The Executive Order states executive branch policy but does not itself revise the CDC immunization schedule adopted based on ACIP recommendations. Under the Affordable Care Act, non-grandfathered group health plans and issuers generally must cover ACIP-recommended immunizations without cost-sharing. Because the Executive Order does not independently change ACIP recommendations or the CDC-adopted schedule, current coverage requirements remain unchanged.” MORE >>
Source: Groom Law Group
Litigation
1 item[Regulatory Action and Guidance]
Inspector General Notes DOL’s Lack of Controls in Information Sharing Agreements“The Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) found in a recent report that three of its agencies have failed to establish controls for information-sharing agreements with private-sector plaintiff-side law firms. According to the OIG, the lack of oversight over 48 agreements from January 2023 through June 2025 has given some third-party entities an unfair advantage. DOL claims that it did not enter into any information-sharing agreements during the first half of 2025.” MORE >>
Source: Hall Benefits Law