August 20, 2026
Newsletters
Mind the Gap: When Your Retirement Plan Document, Plan Operations, and Participant Communications Do Not Match
Most compliance problems announce themselves. This one does not. Your plan has been operating under the CARES Act, SECURE 1.0, and SECURE 2.0 for years, your participants have received communications describing those features, and your recordkeeper has administered them faithfully. The only thing that could be missing is the plan language. That gap is permitted by law, but not for much longer, and if you are about to finalize plan highlights, enrollment materials, plan notices, or similar materials for 2026, the gap could be written into another round of participant communications.