Plan Management Accounts

Review all plan management accounts including ERISA budget and all forfeiture accounts. Reach out to your recordkeeper for account balance information. Refer to plan document for guidance on usage.

Small Balances

Consider your plan’s small balance cash out options. Reach out to your recordkeeper for participant balance information. Refer to plan documents on your plan’s specific provisions.

Contributions

  • Employer: Review your plan document for eligibility and allocation requirements. Determine whether a true up calculation is required.
  • Employee: Review contribution and compensation limit controls in payroll to ensure they are in place and effective.

Partial Plan Termination

Review employee counts to determine if the plan had a partial plan termination. Refer to IRS resources for tools and guidance.

Do You Require a Plan Audit?

  • Generally, plans that cover 100 or more employees as of the beginning of the plan year are considered “large plans” that are required to be audited.
  • The 80/120 rule allows plans with between 80 and 120 participants, as of the 1st day of the plan year, to file the Form 5500 in the same category ("large plan" or "small plan") as indicated on the prior year Form 5500 filing.

Year-End Participant Notifications

Distribute all required year-end participant disclosures. Safe Harbor notices, QDIA notices, and Automatic Enrollment notices are required to be given to participants at least 30 days, but not more than 90 days, before the first day of the plan year.

Fidelity Bond

Review fidelity bond coverage for adequacy.

Payroll

  • Review plan document’s definition of compensation used for various purposes and verify that correct compensation totals are being reported to the recordkeeper.
  • Check if your payroll department or payroll service provider added any new “compensation type” codes during the plan year that also need to be included in compensation totals to be sent to the recordkeeper.