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To paraphrase the words of President Franklin Roosevelt, “2020 is a year that will live in infamy”. We’re only halfway through the year, yet the COVID-19 pandemic has already shaken our world in ways nobody could have foreseen…

The COVID-19 pandemic has turned everyone’s world upside down – especially for companies that have been forced to work remotely.

The COVID-19 virus is disrupting business in ways none of us could have anticipated. During this difficult time, PenChecks is fully prepared to support you in keeping your business operating as smoothly as possible.

At PenChecks Trust™ we’re in the business of providing solutions to the retirement plan industry. Most of those solutions involve payment processing services and the care and administration of missing participant assets.

Fair Warning: The retirement plan space loves its abbreviations and acronyms. And the DOL is no exception. I certainly use them (sometimes to the dismay of my colleagues).

There’s a lot happening in the world of unclaimed property. The Little Book of Missing Money: A Quick and Easy Guide to Finding Money that is Rightfully Yours…

Have you ever wondered about the rationale behind required minimum distributions (RMDs) from retirement plans? Retirement plans were designed to help build retirement nest eggs by deferring taxation on the contributions and earnings until the funds are withdrawn after age 59½ for use during retirement.

No plan sponsor or TPA likes dealing with uncashed retirement checks. However, when a former employee fails to cash their distribution, the employer still has fiduciary responsibility for the funds. Conducting search efforts to locate the “missing plan participant” takes time and money, and often fails to locate the participant.

These days, problems related to missing and nonresponsive retirement plan participants are causing more problems and creating more uncertainty for plan sponsors and administrators. For example, Lines 4l of Schedules H and I of Form 5500 and line 10f of Form 5500-SF ask, “Has the plan failed to provide any benefit when due under the plan?”

America has a nationwide retirement savings gap. Some have even called the shortfall between retirement income and projected expenses a retirement savings crisis. Fidelity Investments says that you need to accumulate three times your income at age 30, seven times your income at age 55, and 10 times your income at age 67 to fund your retirement.

The day of reckoning for brokers and others who have been giving investment advice may get farther away. The Department of Labor (DOL) says it has now requested an additional delay until July 1, 2019 for additional exemption requirements of the Fiduciary Rule.

Here we are, already half-way through 2017. It’s been an interesting six months, to say the least, especially with the implementation of the new Department of Labor (DOL)
fiduciary rule.

Good plan communications are an important part of administering a retirement plan. They help participants understand the basic plan rules, which are not easily found in the technical plan documents.

This is part three of a 3-part series on Participant Education. More than half (54%) of pre-retirees are reported to have less than $150,000 in their 401k accounts.