Document Restatements Required

Many retirement plans are written using Internal Revenue Service (IRS) preapproved documents.  Preapproved plans must be restated every six years to add language with respect to any new rules and regulations that have been enacted since the previous restatement.  This six-year restatement period is known as a “cycle”.  The last restatement cycle was referred to as the PPA cycle, for the Pension Protection Act of 2006.  That restatement cycle ended on April 30, 2016, meaning that was the deadline by which all plans had to be restated. 

The upcoming cycle, known as Cycle 3, will run from August 1, 2020 to July 31, 2022.  This is a 2-year window during which all preapproved plans must be restated (note, however, that preapproved 403(b) and cash balance plans run on different cycles).  We are in the process of assigning all of our plans to a specific time slot within the 2-year window, in order to ensure that the workload is spread out evenly across the period. We are mailing letters to all of our plan clients to inform them of the upcoming restatement process.  Plans will be restated onto the new Cycle 3 document by carrying over the provisions of the current PPA document to the new Cycle 3 document.  The restated Cycle 3 document for each client will be mailed out for review and signature.  Employers will be given an opportunity to request discretionary changes to the plan design as part of the restatement process.

Plans that are not on a preapproved document, but instead use an attorney drafted individually designed document, are subject to different restatement rules.  Check with your attorney or other document provider as to the due date for the restatement of any individually designed plans.