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Hacked! Is Your Retirement Plan at Risk for a Cyber Attack? Cyber-crime is on the rise worldwide. As a result, growing numbers of organizations are taking critical steps to protect their valuable electronic data from hackers and other cyber criminals - a process known as cybersecurity. It's serious business, and a trend retirement plan sponsors and committees should pay attention to.

The recent enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) makes changes to 401(k) loan repayment options, which should prompt plan sponsors and plan administrators to re-evaluate their existing loan program, processes and procedures.  This article will provide an overview of the loan provision and offer a list of considerations that plan sponsors can use when adding or modifying an existing loan feature to their plan.

On June 21, 2018 the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the requirements of the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Conflict of Interest Rule—more commonly referred to as the “DOL Fiduciary Rule”—thus killing the rule entirely. Despite this news, the death of the DOL Fiduciary Rule does not alleviate a plan sponsor from being a fiduciary when sponsoring an ERISA-covered retirement plan, such as a 401(k).

Locating missing plan participants can be a headache for any employer, but simply ignoring them is not an effective solution. Regulatory agencies in previous years have published guidance on this topic relating to missing “retired” employees. With the increase in the number of “pre-retired” missing plan participants, governmental bodies are now taking additional measures to provide solid guidance and solutions to help streamline this arduous process for plan sponsors.Plan

401K REFUNDS: NOT AS GOOD AS THEY SOUND With tax season fresh on our minds, many hear the word refund and begin running down their imagery wish list of ways to spend this extra money. However, when it comes to 401(k) refunds, or corrective distributions, the excitement should be dialed back.Corrective distributions are a headache for plan sponsors and employees alike. Essentially, these refunds mean that your plan has failed testing, and tax deferred money that key employees set aside for retire