The Daily Brief for Benefits Professionals
BenefitsWire
Retirement Plans
September 23, 2026
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8 items · ~3 min read
In this issue
Regulatory Action and Guidance (1) · General Benefits (5) · Retirement Plans (1) · Litigation (1)
Regulatory Action and Guidance
1 item“Amendments that reflect mandatory changes to plan qualification requirements, such as updated required minimum distribution rules, do not need to be adopted until the end of the second year after the amendment first appears on the Required Amendments List (“RA List”) published by the IRS. For example, the Roth catch-up contribution mandate under SECURE 2.0 is expected to appear on the 2027 RA List once final regulations become applicable, which would result in an amendment deadline of December 31, 2029. ... Generally, the deadline for discretionary amendments is the last day of the plan year in which the discretionary provision is operationally put into effect, but Notice 2024-2 extends this” MORE >>
Source: Haynes Boone
General Benefits
5 items[Compliance Deadlines]
The Safe Harbor Deadline Most Business Owners Miss Before They Reach It“For a calendar-year plan, a new Safe Harbor 401(k) with a matching formula has to be in place for at least three months of the plan year, which lands the deadline on October 1. What gets missed is the phrase “in place.” It doesn’t mean decided. It means documents executed, payroll connected, participants notified, and the plan actually operating. The notice alone has to reach employees roughly 30 days ahead of the effective date.” MORE >>
Source: 401(k) Specialist
“About 76 million workers—nearly 52% of working Americans ages 18 to 64—lack access to an employer-provided retirement plan, according to an updated analysis of America’s retirement savings system released on Sept. 18 by the Economic Innovation Group, an organization backing the “Retirement Savings for Americans Act” that was reintroduced in Congress last year. That bill seeks to establish a new program that would provide eligible workers access to portable, tax-advantaged retirement savings accounts.” MORE >>
Source: 401(k) Specialist
“The United States continues to slide down the rankings of the best countries for retirement security, falling from 21st to 24th in this year’s Global Retirement Index (GRI), released today by Natixis Investment Managers. That’s down from 21st in 2025 and 14th a decade ago. The U.S. lost ground across three of the four factors measured by the Index, including an eight-place decline in “Finances in Retirement” to 18th.” MORE >>
Source: 401(k) Specialist
“Private-sector employees in a competently run 401(k) can receive a low-cost, diversified synthetic stable-value fund: a transparent portfolio of bonds owned for participants, protected by contracts from several independent banks and insurers. No single insurer holds all the money. The portfolio, fees, market-to-book ratio, crediting rate and wrap providers can be disclosed and monitored. Millions of state and local government workers get something very different. Their 457 plan may put the entire “safe” option behind one insurance company. The insurer owns and invests the assets, sets the credited rate and keeps the undisclosed spread between what its portfolio earns and what workers receive” MORE >>
Source: The Commonsense 401(k) Project
“Unlike mutual funds, CITs are regulated as bank products, not as securities, and are therefore not regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Instead, CITs are regulated by state and federal banking regulators. Depending on the charter of the issuing bank, that can be either the federal Office of the Comptroller of the Currency or state bank examiners, along with the Internal Revenue Service. CITs also are subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, rather than the Investment Company Act of 1940, under which mutual funds are governed. In addition, CITs are privately held and therefore cannot be purchased in the retail market, as mutual funds can.” MORE >>
Source: PLANADVISER
Retirement Plans
1 item[Regulatory Action and Guidance]
Should you fear private market assets in your 401(k)? Georgetown Retirement Research says no | Construction Insurance“The proposed federal rule addresses these challenges for 401(k) and other defined contribution plans. It is principles-based and asset-neutral, setting out six factors—risk-adjusted performance, fees, liquidity, valuation, benchmarks, and complexity—for fiduciaries to consider objectively and document. A fiduciary who follows this process then earns a legal presumption of prudence, allowing them to create new options for workers.” MORE >>
Source: const-ins.com
Litigation
1 item“A coalition of groups has asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to affirm the dismissal of a 401(k) plan forfeiture lawsuit against Northrop Grumman Corp., an aerospace and defense company. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC), and the American Benefits Council filed an amicus brief in the case, arguing that dismissal was warranted because federal regulations traditionally have allowed employers to use forfeited 401(k) funds to pay for their plan contributions. The case is Laura Garner v. Northrop Grumman Corporation, Case Number 26-1258, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. In their amicus brief, the groups claim that the U.S. governmen” MORE >>
Source: Hall Benefits Law