DATES & DEADLINES - October 2023

Retirement Plan Sponsors,

It’s the fourth quarter, and we’re almost to the end of the year. There are few, but very important deadlines this month. And it being spooky season, the impacts for missing the Form 5500 could be scary and financially consequential.

October 2nd (truly September 30th, but it was a Saturday this year) is the deadline for providing Summary Annual Reports (SAR) to plan participants. The deadline is nine month after the plan year end or two months after filing your 5500. If you’ve extended filing your 5500 (more on this in a moment), you would also have an extension on your SAR deadline until December 15th.

As Retirement Plan Advisors we are more commonly flagging the Annual Notices (Safe Harbor, Automatic Contributions, Qualified Default Investments among others) later in the fall, usually at the end of November/beginning of December. However, that notice window is ‘30 to 90 days’, so if you have those notices in hand now and are ready to distribute them, you can get this off your to-do list early. That said, many of our plans have recordkeeper partners responsible for emailing & mailing these tasks, and they will likely send them much closer to their deadline date of December 1st.

October 16th (October 15th is a Sunday) is the deadline for filing your Form 5500 with the Department of Labor (possibly traveling with a Retirement Plan Audit depending on your plan’s population size). Filing after this point (or filing an incomplete Form) may open the plan up to potential IRS penalties.

Any questions you have about what your responsibilities are towards your organizations 401(k)/403(b) plans? Email me Christina.Tunison@lpl.com.

#486768 October2023