IRS Extends Plan Amendment Deadlines for SECURE Act Provisions

Deadlines have also been extended to amend plans for certain provisions of the Miners Act and the CARES Act.

The IRS has issued Notice 2022-33, extending the deadlines for amending a retirement plan or individual retirement account to reflect certain provisions of the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act, the Miners Act and the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act.

For a qualified non-governmental plan, including an applicable collectively bargained plan, the deadline to amend a plan for provisions of the SECURE Act and the regulations thereunder is December 31, 2025. This previous deadline was the last day of the first plan year ending on or after January 1, 2022. The deadline extension also applies to section 104 of the Miners Act, which lowered the minimum age for allowable in-service distributions from a qualified pension plan from age 62 to age 59.5.

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The plan amendment deadline for SECURE Act and Miners Act provisions for a qualified governmental plan is 90 days after the close of the third regular legislative session of the legislative body with the authority to amend the plan that begins after December 31, 2023.

In general, the deadline for a section 403(b) plan that is not maintained by a public school to amend a plan for provisions of the SECURE Act and the regulations thereunder is December 31, 2025. For a section 403(b) plan that is maintained by a public school, the deadline is 90 days after the close of the third regular legislative session of the legislative body with the authority to amend the plan that begins after December 31, 2023.

According to the IRS notice, the deadline for amending a plan to reflect the CARES Act provision that waived required minimum distributions for defined contribution plans and IRAs for 2020 has also been extended. The deadline for amending a retirement plan that is not a governmental plan is December 31, 2025, and the deadline for amending a retirement plan that is a governmental plan is 90 days after the close of the third regular legislative session of the legislative body with the authority to amend the plan that begins after December 31, 2023. With respect to a governmental plan under section 457(b) of the Code, the deadline is the later of the third regular legislative session of the legislative body with the authority to amend the plan that begins after December 31, 2023, or the first day of the first plan year beginning more than 180 days after the date of notification by the Secretary of Labor that the plan was administered in a manner that is inconsistent with the requirements of section 457(b).

What Mutual Fund Fee Disparities Mean for Retirement Savings

Retail investors generally pay more fees in IRAs than in workplace plans, leading to higher costs and lower long-term savings.



When employees decide to leave their employer-sponsored retirement plan, either through retirement or a job change, many decide to roll their savings over into an individual retirement account. A recent study suggests that this can be a risky move financially, as IRA owners are more likely to face higher costs over time.

According to a Pew issue brief, “Small Differences in Mutual Fund Fees Can Cut Billions From Americans’ Retirement Savings,” when an individual moves their savings over into an IRA, thousands of dollars in savings can be lost over time—simply because of differences in fees between funds or between types of shares within a fund.

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As the analysis details, mutual funds have share classes that charge different fees depending on the type of investor. Shares held by individuals using their own savings outside of the employment context—i.e., retail investors—tend to carry higher fees than institutionally priced shares delivered at scale to large populations of retirement plan participants.

Unlike most individual investors, employer-sponsored retirement plans can leverage their purchasing power to access lower fee shares. Accordingly, the study shows, the routine shifting of billions of dollars each year from 401(k)s into IRAs can translate into higher costs for retail investors, which eats into their long-term savings.

IRAs offer a way for those without access to an employer-sponsored plan to save, but only 13% of working Americans use these accounts to put away money for retirement, the study says. From 2009 to 2018, rollovers from employer-sponsored retirement plans accounted for more than 95% of traditional IRA inflows each year.

In 2018, investors rolled $516.7 billion from employer retirement plans into traditional IRAs, the study says. Looking at the difference in fees and using a hypothetical retirement period of 25 years, those retail investors could see an aggregate reduction in savings of about $45.5 billion—all thanks to the single rollover decision.  

In 2020, about 57% of households with IRAs indicated that the balance included rollover assets, and of those who completed rollovers, 56% reported that those assets constituted their entire IRA balance, the study states.

To highlight the impact individual investors face, the study examines the differences between institutional and retail class annual expenses across all mutual funds that offered at least one institutional and one retail share in 2019.

For mutual funds that primarily hold equities, costs are significantly higher for retail shares, the study says. Annual expenses for median retail shares were 0.34 percentage points higher than those for institutional shares—representing about 37% higher fees.

Mutual funds that hold both equities and bonds—known as hybrid funds—and bond mutual funds have lower expenses than equity funds do, the study states. Median retail share expenses are about 41% higher for hybrid funds and 56% higher for bond funds compared with median institutional share expenses.

To illustrate how the differences in expenses can affect savings, the study uses three hypothetical investors, finding a reduction in savings of between nearly $21,000 and $138,000 after 25 years. The differences may appear small at first glance, but in each example, a substantial loss of savings accrued over time. Even small disparities in fees can lead to big differences in retirement savings account assets, the study shows, given that the accounts are often used for decades to accumulate savings.

The study also mentions a 2013 report from the Government Accountability Office on IRA rollovers and the confusion they can cause, which found that the information that plan participants receive upon separation is often insufficient or overly technical in nature. People leaving workplace plans often receive advice or marketing from financial firms favoring IRAs, and they may interpret this information as a tacit suggestion to choose providers’ retail investments.

Given the troubling data, more plan sponsors are seeking ways to retain retirees in their plans, the study states, so that all participants benefit from the lower investment costs that come with economies of scale.

Importantly, employer-sponsored retirement plans and IRAs both make high- and low-cost funds available to investors, meaning IRAs are not inevitably more expensive. Still, on average, the institutional share classes of mutual funds available in an employer plan are less expensive to own than the same fund’s retail share classes.

The study suggests that savers who are happy with their investments may be better off leaving their assets in the plan when they separate from their employer. Those who want to complete a rollover should seek investments with equivalent or lower expenses than the mutual funds they owned in their 401(k).

To accomplish this, the study suggests, investors should be provided with clear, accessible information about fees. In addition, employers may want to enhance financial wellness programs with online or other services that help retirees and others leaving their jobs make good decisions with their retirement savings.

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