Data & Research

Reporting and Disclosure Requirements for Non-ERISA Plans

For retirement plans that do not need to comply with the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), but still need to worry about reporting disclosure requirements, there is a checklist available to assist sponsors.
Reported by Kevin McGuinness

Financial and retirement services provider Prudential has created its Compliance Checklist 2014 for qualified governmental and nonelecting church plans, non-ERISA 403(b) plans, 457 plans and nonqualified executive benefit plans that are not subject to ERISA.

The authors of the checklist acknowledge that even without ERISA coming into play, navigating the reporting and disclosure requirements mandated by the federal government can be confusing at best for retirement plan sponsors. So, the checklist offers sponsors of non-ERISA plans information on the materials that need to be filed, as well as filing due dates and the agencies these materials need to be routed to.

The checklist is divided into two broad reporting categories: Participants and Beneficiaries; and Internal Revenue Service (IRS). These categories each contain five sections that include:

  • Status: to monitor the activity for each item that applies to your plan.
  • Plan: indicates if the item applies to a:
    • qualified governmental or nonelecting church defined benefit plan;
    • qualified governmental or nonelecting church defined contribution plan;
    • non-ERISA 403(b) plan;
    • Section 457(b) plan; and/or
    • unfunded nonqualified plan.
     
  • Item: the task.
  • Action/Support: what must be completed for each item.
  • When Due: deadline or completion time frame for each item.

The checklist also makes mention of special reporting requirements for nonqualified top-hat retirement plans if there are unfunded.

The information presented in the checklist reflects reporting and disclosure requirements in effect as of January 1, 2014, according to Prudential.

A copy of the compliance checklist for non-ERISA plans can be downloaded here.

Prudential has also released a checklist of how defined benefit, defined contribution and 403(b) plans can better comply with ERISA (see “HelpingDB, DC and 403(b) Plan Comply with ERISA”).