Effective date of new 403(b) plan

[Guest hb95]

Can the effective date of a new 403(b) plan be January 1, 2014, even though the plan is not actually signed until March 1, 2014? The document provider insists the plan effective date must be March 1 because of they cannot get the employer set up in their systems until that date. The employer would like the effective date to be January 1, but does not want to make things difficult with the document provider. Any negative effects to the employer if they just go with a March 1 effective date?