Client Resources

Each restatement cycle lasts 24 months. This restatement cycle, also known as Cycle 3, runs from April 1, 2023 until it closes on March 31, 2025.

You have a choice between two options. Be sure to inform Julie Yanez of your choice so we can prioritize our work and provide an invoice. If we don’t hear from you before December 31st, we will assume Option 2.

• Option 1: Request a Plan Review. Use this Restatement as an opportunity to improve your plan. If you like, we’ll review your plan together and consider how changes in your business or new legislation may provide opportunities that benefit you and your participants.
• Option 2: Restate the Plan As-Is. If you don’t need to make any other changes to your plan, we’ll review and rewrite your plan document to include any previously adopted plan amendments along with the new provisions as required by the IRS or the DOL.

This upcoming mandatory restatement period is for defined benefit plans which includes cash balance plans. All qualified retirement plans that use an IRS pre-approved plan document must be restated approximately every six years.

Plan documents are drafted based on laws and regulations set forth by Congress, the Treasury Department, and the DOL. As new laws and regulations are passed and finalized, documents must be updated to reflect those changes. Since the last defined benefit restatement cycle, which ended on July 31, 2020, there have been a number of regulatory and legislative changes impacting retirement plans, including the following:

• Expansion of the definition of “spouse” to include those of the same gender
• Ability to rollover distributions from a qualified plan to a SIMPLE IRA
• Methods to distribute a participant’s accrued benefit partially as an annuity and partially as a lump sum or other accelerated form of payment

Yes. Regardless of how recently you may have amended or restated your plan, it could not have satisfied the new requirements as the IRS had not yet issued their approval letter for Cycle 3 documents.

When a plan is terminated, it must be updated with all required law changes. If a plan is terminated after April 1, 2023, the restatement will become a required part of the legal plan documentation required for the plan termination process.

Yes. Newly created plans could not have satisfied the Cycle 3 restatement requirement as the IRS had not yet issued approval letters. However, there is some flexibility for plan sponsors to restate a plan during the restatement cycle as long as the restated plan is adopted and signed before March 31, 2025.

Cares and Secure Act are addressed as a separate, good-faith amendment rather than in the plan documents. These Acts missed the IRS approval deadline of December 1, 2019.

Plans that do not adopt a timely-signed Cycle 3 restatement plan document by March 31, 2025 will be subject to IRS-imposed penalties. This may also affect the qualified status of your plan and contributions made to the plan.

$1,750 for Option 1 (Plan review)

$1,200 for Option 2 (Without Plan review)

Yes. Since the restatement is mandatory, the expense is eligible to be paid from plan assets.

Plan Sponsors will receive the restatement plan documents which includes:

1. Adoption Agreement
2. Basic Plan Document
3. Trust Agreement
4. Board Resolution
5. Secure and Cares Act
6. Plan Highlights
7. Summary Plan Description
8. IRS Advisory Letter

Our email accompanying your restated documents will explain in detail where to sign and date. Upon completion, please send us your signature pages for our file. Plan Sponsors must adopt the Cycle 3 restated plan document by March 31, 2025.