Search the News Archive

House Bill Seeks Increased Oversight of Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board

"[T]he Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board Inspector General Act of 2025 [HR 3364] ... seeks to amend the Inspector General Act of 1978 to include the FRTIB among the federal entities required to have an inspector general.... If enacted, the inspector general would be responsible for conducting audits, investigations and evaluations to promote efficiency while preventing any fraud, waste or abuse within the agency."

Text of Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board Proposed Regs: Blended Retirement System

"The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016 (NDAA) ... changed the uniformed services' retirement plan from one that relied primarily on a cliff-vested defined benefit to one that blends a reduced defined benefit with enhanced TSP benefits, continuation pay, and lump-sum options. The new retirement system is known as the Blended Retirement System (BRS). This proposed rule implements the enhanced TSP benefits provided by the NDAA."

Text of Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board Proposed Regs: TSP Default Investment Fund Errors

"This proposed regulation would update the TSP's existing error correction rules to address the correction of default investment fund errors caused by erroneous dates of birth."

Text of Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board Announcement Relaxing Hardship Withdrawal Rules to Help Victims of Hurricane Irma (PDF)

"Beginning today, the [Thrift Savings Plan] will treat any Financial Hardship In-Service Withdrawal Request received until January 24, 2018 as qualifying for a hardship withdrawal if the participant writes 'Hurricane Irma' at the top of the form and checks the block on the form for personal casualty on page 2, Item 18 of the form. The distributions must occur before January 31, 2018 to qualify for this treatment."

Text of Final Regs from Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board: Matching Contributions to TSP Required Under USERRA if Employee Makes Up Missed Contributions (PDF)

5 pages; final regulations for the Thrift Savings Plan established in 1986 for federal employees, published July 30, 2002. Excerpt: The employee is entitled to lost earnings on missed agency contributions ... The employee will elect to have the lost earnings calculated using either the rates of return based on the contributions allocation(s) on file for the participant during the period of military service or using the rates of return for the G Fund ...

GAO Report: Many Responsibilities and Investment Policies Set by Congress for the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board

32 pages. "In light of questions about TSP oversight, we examined [1] the current structure for overseeing FRTIB, [2] how the statutorily defined fiduciary responsibilities of FRTIB compare to the responsibilities of private plan sponsors and how FRTIB fulfills its responsibilities, [3] how FRTIB's investment policies differ from those of private plan sponsors, and [4] FRTIB's statutory responsibilities to educate plan participants about TSP and other retirement issues and how these responsibilities compare with those of private and state and local government employee plan sponsors." [GAO-07-611, published Jun. 21, 2007, released Jul. 23, 2007]

Text of Federal Thrift Investment Board Final Regs: New Automatic Enrollment Percentage Is 5%

"[FRTIB] is amending its regulations to increase the automatic enrollment percentage from 3 percent to 5 percent of basic pay for all participants who are automatically enrolled in the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) on or after October 1, 2020 and for Blended Retirement Service (BRS) participants who are automatically re-enrolled in the TSP on or after January 1, 2021. In addition, the FRTIB is making a non-substantive clarification regarding installment payments calculated based on life expectancy."

Text of FRTIB Proposed Regs: Roth In-Plan Conversions in Federal Thrift Savings Plan

"This proposed rule would permit all TSP participants (active and separated), as well spouse beneficiaries, to convert amounts in their traditional balance to amounts their Roth balance. In accordance with the Internal Revenue Code, the converted amount would be treated as a distribution from the traditional account that is taxable in the year the conversion is done."

Text of FRTIB Final Regs: Elimination of Mandatory Roth Distributions for Federal Thrift Savings Plan

"This direct final rule makes technical conforming revisions necessary to implement statutory amendments made by the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022. Specifically, it eliminates the requirement to take mandatory Roth distributions.... This rule is effective on January 1, 2024, unless significant adverse comment is received by December 15, 2023."

Text of Proposed Regs Adding Roth Feature to Thrift Savings Plan for Federal Employees (PDF)

The Thrift Savings Plan Enhancement Act of 2009 ... authorized the [Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board] to implement a qualified Roth contribution program described in section 402A of the Internal Revenue Code. This feature will allow participants to make TSP contributions on an after-tax basis and receive tax-free earnings upon distribution if (1) five years have passed since January 1 of the year in which they made their first Roth contribution, and (2) a qualifying event has occurred (i.e., attainment of age 591.2, permanent disability, or death). The TSP Roth feature is similar to a designated Roth account maintained by a 401(k) plan.