"Plan sponsor (S) of a calendar year 401(k) safe harbor match plan is acquired in a stock purchase by Buyer (B), which has its own 401(k) plan. S's plan is NOT terminated prior to closing of the transaction. All of S's employees will be hired by B upon closing, and will be immediately eligible to participate in B's plan. S will continue to exist as a subsidiary of B, though without employees, and will retain the EIN it has now. Can S's plan retain its safe harbor status for 2023, notwithstanding there will be no new money coming into the plan because S no longer has employees? I know S's plan can't terminate post-closing without running into a successor plan issue, but must it remain in existence until 12/31/2023, at which time it would merge with B's plan, to be able to preserve safe harbor status for 2023? Would merging the plans before year-end forfeit the S plan's safe harbor status for the year?"

"Pursuant to Section 603 of the SECURE Act and starting with the 2024 calendar year, if FICA wages in the previous calendar year (2023) exceeded $145,000, the catch-up contributions under IRC 414(v) must be made to a designated Roth account under the Plan. If a participant elected pre-tax 401(k) contributions in 2024 and the participant reaches the dollar amount permitted under IRC 402(g) in the middle of 2024 (i.e.- September, 2024), is it possible for the plan to be designed to withhold Roth 401(k) catch-up contributions for the remainder of the 2024 year (i.e., September-December, 2024) up to the IRC 414(v) limit (i.e., $7,500)? The SPARK Institute's Comment Letter to the IRS (April 10, 2023) requests IRS guidance that permits this automatic spillover:

• The SPARK Institute requests confirmation that employers and plan administrators can rely on negative consent to switch employee elections from pre-tax elective deferrals to designated Roth contributions in order to prevent any existing election from violating SECURE 2.0’s requirement for Roth catch-up contributions.

I was just checking to see if recordkeepers and/or payroll companies have considered this automatic spillover as a feature that they are planning to build, support and administer in their SECURE 2.0 projects."

"Question 1 The way that I read Section 602 (and the new paragraph 403(b)(17), 403(b)'s may only permit hardship distributions from elective deferrals, QNEC's and QMAC's. Nothing else is listed. No one seems to be saying that 403(b) plans that were previously allowing hardships from Employer Contribution accounts are no longer allowed to do so, so I must be missing something. But the plain English words in (17) do not list any Employer sources besides QNEC's and QMACs??? Question 2 Sort of related to Question 1 - people seem to be saying that the hardship rules are now aligned for 403bs and 401ks, but 403(b)(7) plans (mutual fund funded plans) seem still exclude employer contributions, while insurance based programs do not (that's from my reading in the ERISA Outline book). I assume this is generally agreed? I'm surprised it's not mentioned in many of the write-ups I've read because I've always found that particular inconsistency to be by far the most baffling provision in all of retirement plan law."

"When a retirement plan allows a recordkeeper’s brokerage window: Does the plan’s named fiduciary get reports on the details of which stocks, bonds, and other securities each participant buys, holds, and sells? Or does the named fiduciary get access to a database with that information? Is that reporting or access routine? Or must the fiduciary specifically ask for those services?"

"Can the cost of calculating the interest for late contributions (and preparing the 5330) be charged against the plan? i.e. taken from forfeitures? What about the cost of calculating interest for missed deferral opportunity? I know the interest itself must be paid by the ER."