My favorite professor at law school Bernie Corr said it best when he joked that the Bankruptcy Code changes to keep bankruptcy attorneys employed.
I’m sure people think that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) requires retirement plans to be restated every 6 years to keep ERISA attorneys like me employed.
Maybe that’s true in part, but the Internal Revenue Code consistently changes when it comes to retirement plans, so the IRS requires retirement plans to be restated every 6 years.
If you sponsor a defined contribution plan using a ready-made prototype or volume submitter plan, you need your plan to be restated by April 30th. If you fail to amend and restate your plan by that deadline, your plan will be penalized on audit and risk disqualification of the plan which would mean that all benefits would be immediately taxable to plan participants and business deductions for contributions disallowed. So get that plan restated.
If you need a plan restated, I know a pretty decent ERISA attorney (cough, cough) who can restate your plan document at a reasonable, flat fee. Give me a call.