ERISA News

Thanks to the SECURE 2.0 Act, certain employees will have more deferral opportunities beginning in 2025. Read below to learn how much employees can contribute to their retirement plan and about the types of deferrals that may be available.

Representative Cathy Rodgers (R-WA), has introduced the ABLE Tomorrow Act. According to a press release, the proposal would do the following.

• Make the ABLE to Work Act and ABLE Financial Planning Act permanent
• Eliminate the Medicaid clawback in the original ABLE Act
• Allow for a one-time lump sum into an ABLE account beyond the $18,000 per gift tax contribution limit for certain instances
• Allow an employer to make contributions to an ABLE eligible worker’s 529A account in lieu of contributions to the employer’s defined contribution plan

The National Emergency in response to COVID-19 that began on March 20, 2020, ended on May 11, 2023. The Outbreak Period ended July 10, 2023, 60-days after the end of the National Emergency.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) issued a Major Disaster Declaration on December 9, 2024, for West Virginia Post-tropical Storm Helene, for the incident period of September 25 – September 28, 2024. 

The Internal Revenue Service released Notice 2024-82, 2024 Required Amendments List for Qualified and Section 403(b) Plans, setting forth the 2024 list of required amendments that apply to section 401(a) qualified individually designed plans, section 403(b) individually designed plans, and pre-approved plans with respect to interim amendments.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently issued Notice 2024-77, providing interim guidance on the treatment of “inadvertent benefit overpayments” from defined benefit and defined contribution plans as provided by Section 301 of the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (SECURE 2.0). This interim guidance specifically refers to the application of the plan qualification and rollover distribution rules provided by Internal Revenue Code Sections (IRC Secs.) 414(aa) and 402(c)(12) to the correction methods available for inadvertent benefit overpayments under the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (EPCRS) as outlined in Revenue Procedure (Rev. Proc.) 2021-30.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) issued a Major Disaster Declaration on November 27, 2024, for Puerto Rico Tropical Storm Ernesto, for the incident period of August 13 – August 16, 2024. 

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) issued Major Disaster Declarations on November 26, 2024, for the following.

The Office of Management and Budget has received a final rule from the Department of Labor (DOL) titled “Adoption of Amended and Restated Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program”. The Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program (VFCP) is a voluntary enforcement program that allows plan officials to identify and correct certain transactions, such as delinquent participant contributions, sales and exchanges, improper loans, and improper plan expenses. The VFCP was last updated in 2006. A proposed amendment was released in 2022.

The Internal Revenue Service has announced that it intends to begin issuing opinion letters regarding Cycle 2 pre-approved 403(b) plans, including the 2022 cumulative list of changes in those requirements. The IRS expects to issue opinion letters by November 29, 2024, or as soon as possible thereafter.