Author Archives: admin

No plan sponsor enjoys participant complaints. Nobody likes angry emails, confused employees, or calls that begin with “I don’t understand why…” The instinct is often defensive. The recordkeeper must have caused it. The payroll department probably made a mistake. Surely … Continue reading →

For once, retirement plan sponsors received a rare piece of regulatory news that doesn’t require antacids. The Department of Labor’s civil monetary penalties for 2026 are staying flat. No inflation adjustment. No annual bump. No fresh chart showing how much … Continue reading →

Plan sponsors often approach vendor searches with the best intentions and the wrong priorities. The most common mistake is treating the process like a shopping exercise instead of a fiduciary decision. Fees matter, of course. Nobody wants to overpay for … Continue reading →

On paper, daily eligibility sounds like one of those ideas that makes perfect sense. Why make employees wait? Why force someone hired on Tuesday to sit around until the first of the next month or next quarter before they can … Continue reading →

I’ve always believed the retirement plan business needs its own version of a greatest hits album for bad decisions. Not because I enjoy watching train wrecks, although professionally speaking, they can be educational. But because some of the most valuable … Continue reading →

As a plan provider, one of the more frustrating parts of asset sale transactions is watching a perfectly salvageable retirement plan get marched toward termination because the M&A lawyers want zero daylight between the buyer and anything that smells like … Continue reading →

Washington has a remarkable talent for creating programs designed to help small businesses while making them just complicated enough that the smallest businesses never actually use them. The revival of legislation aimed at expanding startup retirement plan tax credits for … Continue reading →

Auto-enrollment is one of those retirement plan features that sounds wonderfully simple in a sales presentation. “We’ll automatically enroll employees, boost participation, and help people save.” Great. Everyone nods. Then reality arrives wearing steel-toed boots. Because auto-enrollment only works when … Continue reading →

Once upon a time, 401(k) eligibility was easy. Age 21. One year of service. Quarterly entry dates. Everyone understood the assignment. Then we collectively lost our minds. Today, eligibility is where simple concepts go to die. Immediate eligibility for deferrals? … Continue reading →

Few words in retirement plan administration should trigger more anxiety than: “We changed payroll providers.” Because payroll changes are never just payroll changes. To HR, it’s a software conversion. To finance, it’s an operational upgrade. To your retirement plan team? … Continue reading →