Pre-approved 403(b) plan document
The IRS announced March 31, 2020 as the last day to retroactively correct defects in 403(b) plan documents and the last day to adopt a pre-approved plan document. We will be offering a pre-approved 403(b) plan document to our clients once we receive final approval and advisory letters from the IRS (anticipated this spring).
Background
When the IRS issued the final 403(b) regulations in 2007, all plan sponsors were required to have a written plan document by December 31, 2009. However, the Final regulations didn’t include a way for sponsors to ensure their documents satisfied Code Section 403(b). In 2013, the IRS began allowing sponsors to retroactively fix any written document failures dating back to January 1, 2010 and began working on issuing an opinion and advisory letters for 403(b) pre-approved plans. The newly released Rev. Proc. 2017-18 notifies plan sponsors that the deadline to adopt a pre-approved document and retroactively fix written plan failures is March 31, 2020.