Getting Inside the Fed’s Head

The task currently facing the Federal Reserve is daunting: Getting inflation back to target without causing the economy to stall. Whether it succeeds will likely hinge on the evolution of three key policy drivers and the Fed’s response to them: inflation expectations, energy prices, and spare capacity in the economy. Read Vanguard’s perspectives here.  

Coming Soon: An Enhanced Digital Enrollment Experience

If you’re still receiving paper retirement plan enrollment guides, this fall you will begin receiving them electronically, reducing the time, cost, and administrative burden previously associated with distributing paper guides to your employees. This newly enhanced approach also enables us to deliver digital enrollment guides more frequently—helping increase awareness of plan offerings, drive plan participation, and ultimately help prepare participants for retirement.

You can further optimize the enrollment experience by enrolling in electronic delivery (eDelivery) from your plan website if you have not already done so. When you do, enrollment guides will be emailed directly to employee work email addresses and you’ll receive an email confirming which employees received it (New!). You’ll also receive a link to the digital enrollment guide to share with any eligible employees who do not have work email addresses.  

Save Time and Money with eDelivery

There's no better time to go paperless! Reduce the time it takes to prepare and print hardcopy notices, while saving on postage and mailing costs. If you haven't already, enroll in eDelivery from the homepage of the plan website or by navigating to Plan > Delivery Services, where you can also review your current elections. Participants can also opt in to eDelivery on their own from the employee website. Please contact your Client Service Team with any questions.

New Timing for an Improved RMD Experience

To help you ensure that affected participants and beneficiaries take their required minimum distributions (RMDs)—which generally must be distributed by December 31 each year—we’ll automatically deliver your RMD report to you in real time, using current system data, beginning in October. You’ll begin to receive this report more frequently throughout the year, including in the second and third quarters. If you have any affected participants, the report will be delivered directly to your plan website inbox via email and will advise on applicable steps.

In the meantime, for more information on your responsibilities and steps to prepare, please refer to the 2022 RMD Overview.

Preventing Fraud in Participant Accounts

Cyber fraud is a constant concern at every level of account maintenance—from individual participants and plan sponsors to financial advisors and trustees—and it’s on the rise. We constantly review our processes and protocols to detect fraud and stay ahead of cybercriminals, but we all have a role to play in preventing fraud and cyberattacks. Check out these best practices and security habits you can implement today.

Deadline Approaching: SECURE/CARES Amendment Delivery and Adoption

Over the past several years, retirement plans have been impacted by significant legislative activity, including the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act, the Bipartisan American Miner’s (BAM) Act, and the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act. As a plan sponsor, you must use an interim amendment to incorporate and adopt these changes into your plan document.

Plan-specific guidance

Plan sponsors who use Ascensus’ preapproved plan document will receive a plan document amendment kit that provides the documents required for this interim amendment.

• Plan sponsors who are operating their plan according to the established document defaults will not be required to sign the basic plan document (BPD) amendment. We will provide the BPD amendment, a summary of material modifications (SMM), and communication materials explaining the provisions.
• Plan sponsors who are not operating their plan according to the document defaults will need to sign an adoption agreement amendment. In addition to the BPD amendment, we will provide these plan sponsors with the adoption agreement amendment, SMM, and communication materials explaining the provisions.

Please watch for your amendment kit to ensure that you meet the deadline for amending your plan document and for delivering the SMM to your plan participants. If you have not received a communication regarding your amendment kit, reach out to your Client Service Team.