Compliance May 8, 2017

Wagner Law Group 403(b) Plan Document Approved by IRS

Wagner’s pre-approved plan document is a volume submitter plan.
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The Wagner Law Group, an Employee Retirement Income Securities Act (ERISA) and employee benefits law firm, has received Internal Revenue Service (IRS) approval of its volume submitter 403(b) plan.

The IRS’s new pre-approved 403(b) plan program represents the first opportunity for tax-exempt 403(b) plan sponsors, such as charitable and educational organizations, public schools, churches and church-related organizations, to bring certainty of compliance to their 403(b) arrangements.

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A volume submitter plan is a pre-approved plan that has an IRS advisory letter on which adopters of the plan can rely with respect to the form of the plan, including various options that have been subject to IRS review. Since the IRS has never issued determination letters for 403(b) plans (as it has for tax-qualified retirement plans), The Wagner Law Group’s new pre-approved volume submitter 403(b) plan represents an excellent opportunity for sponsors of 403(b) plans to have their plan language approved in advance.

The Wagner Law Group’s volume submitter 403(b) plan has flexible design options to meet the needs of most 403(b) plan sponsors, including the following available features:

  • Pre- and post-tax elective deferrals, and employee contributions;
  • Automatic enrollment including QACAs and EACAs;
  • Various eligibility and service-counting options;
  • Employer matching and discretionary contributions, with several allocation options;
  • Safe harbor matching provisions;
  • Hardship withdrawal and loan provisions; and
  • Various vesting alternatives.
By adopting a volume submitter plan before April 2020, the IRS deadline for bringing 403(b) plans into compliance with relevant IRS regulations that became effective in 2009, a plan sponsor may retroactively correct defects in its plan document back to January 1, 2010 (or, if later, the adoption date of the 403(b) plan). Eligible employers that failed to adopt a written 403(b) plan document by the end of 2009 now have a chance to easily redress that failure, by adopting The Wagner Law Group’s pre-approved 403(b) plan and submitting it to the IRS under the 403(b) Voluntary Correction Program (VCP), to receive a clean bill of health from the IRS.
Products May 8, 2017

Wells Fargo Launches Annuity Option with MetLife

To combat the risk of living out retirement income, Wells Fargo and MetLife are rolling out an annuity option which will provide participants with payments on or before their 85th birthday.

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Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement and Trust is collaborating with MetLife to give retirement plan sponsors a new annuity option. MetLife Retirement Income Insurance is a qualifying longevity annuity contract (QLAC) available for Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement and Trust clients.

As participants approach retirement, they can designate a portion of their plan balance toward the MetLife QLAC, which excludes that amount from funds used to determine the required minimum distribution people must take after age 70 ½. The participant must begin to receive income payments from the QLAC on or before their 85th birthday.

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“Participants face an unanswerable question of how many years they will spend in retirement. Offering this product to our clients supports our philosophy of helping retirement plan participants to and through their retirement,” says Joe Ready, head of Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement and Trust. “We’re pleased to continue to add options that help people prepare for retirement and move the conversation from accumulation into a discussion about managing and drawing down their retirement savings after they retire. At Wells Fargo, we’re committed to supporting participants with tools, resources and products that help them at this stage of the retirement journey.”

Retirement plan participants working at Wells Fargo client companies adopting this new option will be able to learn about the MetLife product in existing education sessions. They will also be able to call into the Wells Fargo Retirement contact center and access an online Retirement Resource Center.

“As the company that introduced longevity insurance into the marketplace, we are pleased that Wells Fargo will be making MetLife’s institutional QLAC available to its 401(k) clients for their plan participants,” says Roberta Rafaloff, vice president, Institutional Income Annuities, MetLife. “Allowing plan participants to take a portion of their retirement savings to protect against the biggest risk in retirement — longevity risk — can help ensure better retirement outcomes.” 

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