When You May Have To Fire Your 401(k) Advisor
For most 401(k) plan sponsors, it’s the financial advisor that serves as their ombudsman. They’re usually the provider that the plan sponsor relies on most to provide referrals to other providers such as third-party administrators (TPAs) and to help out when things aren’t going so well. One big part of when things aren’t going so well is when the financial advisor isn’t doing their job competently and doing a disservice to the plan sponsor. This article is about situations where as a plan sponsor, you may have to fire your financial advisor.

To read the article, click here.
Curb Your Enthusiasm On These Annoying 401(k) Practices
One of my favorite TV shows of all time is Curb Your Enthusiasm. It may be sacrilege, but I enjoy the show as much as Seinfeld. One of the reasons I love the shows is because I love Larry David as played by Larry David (he is playing a fictionalized version of himself). I see some part of me in Larry, but Larry takes it to the extreme. Unlike me, Larry refuses to pick and choose which battles to fight and he often stubbornly focuses on petty details and his opinion to the extent of aggravating everyone around him just to prove an insignificant point. For this article, I’m going to express what aggravates me about the retirement plan business that you probably don’t even know as 401(k) plan sponsors.

To read the article, please click here,
What Plan Sponsors Need To Know About The Cycle 3 Restatement Process
During law school, I had the pleasure of being taught by Bernie Corr. Corr was one of the most entertaining law school professors with his humor and bluntness. I had the pleasure of taking Corr’s Bankruptcy and Advance Bankruptcy courses. Corr said that one of the reasons that the bankruptcy law is changed is to give bankruptcy attorneys some work. So I jokingly say that the whole purpose of the retirement plan restatement process is to feed ERISA attorneys, but it is a joke. The Internal Revenue Service is in charge of creating the restatement process and they have decried that another one has begun and will end on July 31, 2020, So this article is all about the restatement process that will likely require you to restate your plan.

To read the article, please click here.
The Better Choices For 401(k) Plan Provisions
One of the fascinating parts of my job as an ERISA attorney is drafting a 401(k) plan document, especially for a new plan. There are just so many choices, that are often dependent on the demographics of a plan sponsor. Some choices should be made for administrative ease. This article is about 401(k) plan provisions and choices you might consider for your plan.

To read the article, please click here.
Time to change provisions, get that built into the restatement
With the restatement process underway, it certainly makes sense to review your plan document and see which provisions could use a little tinkering. Perhaps you want to change the eligibility or add a Roth 401(k) feature. Whatever it is, it’s best to get these changes in the hand of your third party administrator (TPA) and get it incorporated in your next restatement. It should save some shekels and it would be easier than having a separate amendment drafted to achieve that feat at an added fee.
Vanguard calculates cost of COVID Distributions
The CARES act allowed 401(k) participants easier access to their account balances, during the coronavirus pandemic.

401(k) investors pulled a median of $12,000 from their account in the form of a “coronavirus-related distribution,” according to a new Vanguard review of their clients’ data.

Only 4.5% of Vanguard 401(k) investors took a coronavirus distribution between March and September, which equates to almost 187,000 participants available to about 4.2 million of their 401(k) participants.

Check out That 401(k) Podcast
Check out That 401(k) Podcast and my YouTube Channel.
The podcast you should listen to if you have the time, as well as YouTube videos.

Please check out That 401(k) Podcast. We tackle important 401(k) subjects for both plan sponsors and plan providers. In addition, we talk about all the events I'm hosting. as well as important cultural allusions.

Find it here and on Apple Podcasts here.

To catch the podcast and our virtual events, find my YouTube channel here.