ComplianceMay 8, 2017

Wagner Gets Approval of 403(b) Plan Document

Wagner Law Group says its volume submitter 403(b) plan has flexible design options to meet the needs of most 403(b) plan sponsors.

Reported by Rebecca Moore

The Wagner Law Group, an Employee Retirement Income Securities Act (ERISA) and employee benefits law firm, has received Internal Revenue Service (IRS) approval of its volume submitter 403(b) plan.

The IRS’s new pre-approved 403(b) plan program represents the first opportunity for tax-exempt 403(b) plan sponsors, such as charitable and educational organizations, public schools, churches and church-related organizations, to bring certainty of compliance to their 403(b) arrangements.

A volume submitter plan is a pre-approved plan that has an IRS advisory letter on which adopters of the plan can rely with respect to the form of the plan, including various options that have been subject to IRS review. Since the IRS has never issued determination letters for 403(b) plans (as it has for tax-qualified retirement plans), The Wagner Law Group’s new pre-approved volume submitter 403(b) plan represents an excellent opportunity for sponsors of 403(b) plans to have their plan language approved in advance.

The Wagner Law Group’s volume submitter 403(b) plan has flexible design options to meet the needs of most 403(b) plan sponsors, including the following available features:

Pre- and post-tax elective deferrals, and employee contributions;
Automatic enrollment including QACAs and EACAs;
Various eligibility and service-counting options;
Employer matching and discretionary contributions, with several allocation options;
Safe harbor matching provisions;
Hardship withdrawal and loan provisions; and
Various vesting alternatives.

By adopting a volume submitter plan before April 2020, the IRS deadline for bringing 403(b) plans into compliance with relevant IRS regulations that became effective in 2009, a plan sponsor may retroactively correct defects in its plan document back to January 1, 2010 (or, if later, the adoption date of the 403(b) plan). Eligible employers that failed to adopt a written 403(b) plan document by the end of 2009 now have a chance to easily redress that failure, by adopting The Wagner Law Group’s pre-approved 403(b) plan and submitting it to the IRS under the 403(b) Voluntary Correction Program (VCP), to receive a clean bill of health from the IRS.