Notices sent to non-eligible employees

[nicole_m]

What are your thoughts on providing the following annual participant notices to the entire employee population (everyone in the employer's census) regardless of whether they are yet eligible to participate in the plan?

-QDIA

-Safe Harbor

-Automatic Enrollment (ACA/EACA/QACA)

My thought is that there might be some legal risk for the employer (in that it could be providing misleading information to someone who is not yet eligible) and it could also be confusing for the employee who has no idea whether the notice even applies to them. Beyond these concerns, are there technical issues as well?

[GMK]

To reduce confusion, you could include a cover memo that says something like:

The attached notices apply to employees who are eligible to participate in the ABC Plan.

You become eligible to participate in the ABC Plan when you reach ... and have ...

[nicole_m]

And that was the intent - we're just wondering whether there would still be concerns from a technical perspective even with a cover letter that included that type of language. For example, does the "no more than 90 days" guideline present any concerns for a plan that has a 1 year eligibility requirement, and the notice goes to someone who will not meet eligibility for some time yet?

[GMK]

If the goal is to provide the annual notices to everybody who is supposed to get them without having to keep track of who is not yet eligible for the plan, then send the notices to everyone with the anti-confusion memo every year and also provide the notices to the new enrollees as part of their pre-enrollment document package. That should cover all the bases and anything else that needs covering.