ASC Newsletter
In this issue #22-02
Get Your New Employees Up to Speed Quickly – Before Testing Season!
The testing season is nearly upon us! However, with ASC’s training resources there’s still time to help your new employees and seasoned employees prepare for testing season!
Below is a list of resources to learn more about the Retirement Plan Industry in general as well as ASC Products.
These multi-part series help those new-to-the-industry and provide a review for seasoned professionals. The sessions include an intro to 401(k) plans, Plan Documents, Designs and calculations through to Participant reports, Fiduciary concerns, filing form 5500s and even IRS/DOL corrections programs. Attendees also receive Continuing Education credits for these webcasts.
2. Access to ASC’s entire library of webcasts covering a wide range of ERISA topics is available here. ERISA experts led by John Griffin, J.D., LL.M. offer popular CE webcasts and onsite training to keep you current with trends and ever-changing IRS regulations.
New employees tasked with doing full service plan work can easily become overwhelmed! The resources below can help them get up to speed, and the ASC Support Team is just an email or phone call away!
DGEM Plan Documents, 5500s and CATTS CRM – Access learning tools from the Document Generations & Management System (DGEM) itself: Click on the “UserGuides/FAQ” from the bottom of any page while logged into the software. Users may also click on the “Support” link at the bottom of any page to go to ASC’s Client Support Center (CSC).
PensionPal – From within PensionPal, select Help from the top menu and choose User guide, FAQs, or PensionPal Weekly Tip. The FAQs and Weekly tip links will also take users to the CSC. For more details, click here.
ASC Valuation Software – From within the software, click F1 for context sensitive help for any Menu command, Plan Specification or Employee field. Or select Help-Manuals for the User Guides that offer help in a more procedural context. Users can also select the “question mark” icon, circled in the below image to go directly to Client Support Center (CSC).
DC Learning Channel – Via any mobile device, your employees can access our ASC DC/401(k) Training Videos in a helpful topic-based, episode format. Click here for more details.
Defined Benefit – – While DB training may not be top-of-mind at this time of year, it might be a good idea to glimpse into the available resources before 5500 filing season rolls around the corner. While many of the CE Credit webcasts and the Client Support Center resources apply to DB valuation and combined testing training, we’ve put together an At-a-Glance summary of DB training resources for your new employees. Between the Client Support Center and Valuation System resources, you’ll have your DB practitioners up and running in no time*.
* No guarantees on that, but definitely less time than it takes to earn Enrolled Actuary credentials!
For additional access to resources on the CSC, go directly to the Client Support Center (CSC) homepage, and explore all of our resources. This includes contacting ASC’s Support Staff, all with at least 10 years of experience in the industry. We’re always happy to help!
Take Advantage of the ASC Census Wizard
Save time by batch performing year-end functions such as rolling all your plans forward to the new year and creating year-end census requests (DC, DB, DB/DC Combo) with the ASC Census Wizard.
Plus, Census Data Requests can be saved in a format that can be emailed to your Plan Sponsors and then back to you. To do that, run the ASC Census Wizard to create in batch the census data request .xls files and attach to an email or plan sponsor portal for client download. When the client sends the data back in the same .xls file, you can save it and import it into your case using Access-Ascript-Import.
To download The Wizard: Go to FAQ554 on the Client Support Center (CSC).
Gemini web portal users can run a special version of the wizard that will create the .xls files and post them automatically to the appropriate Plan Sponsor folders on the web portal. PensionPal users also have a special version of the wizard that will create the .xls file that can be posted directly to the PensionPal Web Portal or sent out as an email attachment.
Please note that data encryption might be mandatory in order to email sensitive data. You can check with your IT personnel to see if encryption is needed before sending your emails.
Please contact Support if you have questions, or if you do not already have these wizards and would like to use them.
Cycle 3 Pre-Approved Defined Benefit Plan Restatement Update
Although hard to believe, the Cycle 3 restatement for pre-approved defined benefit plans will be here before we know it. ASC Institute (ASCi), a mass submitter of pre-approved plan documents, is currently in the last stages of working with the IRS to finalize our Cycle 3 pre-approved defined benefit plan documents, which also include cash balance and governmental defined benefit plans.
It is anticipated that the IRS will issue Opinion Letters in February of 2023, which means a projected Cycle 3 restatement period starting April 1, 2023 and ending on March 31, 2025.
If you have any document questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at support@asc-net.com or by using the Support link at the bottom of any DGEM page. For questions related to Cycle 3 defined benefit enrollment, please contact sales@asc-net.com.
Multi-Factor Authentication Login Required Starting January 1, 2023
In an effort to protect you and your clients’ data, effective January 1st, 2023, ASC is requiring that DGEM Plan Document, 5500 and CATTS users begin using Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) logins. Until now, ASC clients have had the option to implement MFA. However, as security concerns in the retirement plan industry continue to multiply, we have decided this enhanced security measure needs to be mandatory. As of January 1, 2023, ASC will turn on MFA on all DGEM accounts.
- Review their users’ DGEM logins to ensure that:
- Each user has an individual login
- Each user has an email and/or cell phone number associated with their login
Users without an email or cell phone number associated with their DGEM login as of January 1st will be unable to login and will need to contact ASC Support via our support site or by sending an email to support@asc-net.com.
When a user with an email or cell phone number properly entered into DGEM logs in for the first time on or after January 1, 2023, the user will see verification code options along with a device registration. For additional MFA details, along with instructions to batch import recovery MFA phone/email in DGEM, please click here.
- Periodically review all users in DGEM
- Delete all inactive users
- When setting up new users, be sure to include the user’s email and/or cell phone number
Please share this information with all of your users so access to DGEM’s Plan Documents, 5500s or CATTS software continues without interruption.
If you have any questions, including if you’d like to go ahead and implement MFA before January 1, please contact us. As always, our goal is to provide the best support for the best products in the industry!
For users that prepare Government Forms on DGEM, the 2015 and prior years 5500 Form Series along with 8955-SSA filings will be purged from the System on December 31, 2022. Any amended or delinquent 2015 and prior filings with a status date later than 1/1/2016 will remain on DGEM. Going forward, an annual purge will be processed to eliminate a single year each December 31st.
Congratulations to our ASPPA Annual Prize Winners!
Congratulations to the winners of the ASC booth raffles. In addition to the instant prizes given out daily, our top winners received an iPad mini and a $150 VISA gift card (pictured below).
Our sales and support teams, comprised of industry experts, actuaries and ERISA attorneys, utilized the opportunity at ASPPA Annual to further their education and keep current with industry accreditations. It is a priority at ASC to consistently provide staff education to ensure that you receive the best support for your ASC products and systems.
ASC provides an integrated suite of retirement plan systems for all your TPA needs. Plus, when you need to reach ASC’s experienced and credentialed Support Team, there’s never a backlog!
You can always reach us at sales@asc-net.com or support@asc-net.com.
