Generating interim amendments for pre-approved plans can be a massive, painstaking, and time-consuming project that is not without risk. However, ASC’s highly acclaimed Document Generation & Management (DGEM) System gives you the ability to automate the process, and dramatically decrease the time, energy, and mental effort you spend processing interim amendments.
DGEM provides tremendous benefits in efficiency, organization, risk reduction and peace of mind in keeping your ASC plan documents in compliance with all required language updates. The system’s robust features reduce the time you will spend processing items such as interim amendments. Plus, its automatic retention of data saves time and reduces the risk of human error when it’s time to do future amendments or restatements.
ASC’s in-house experts approach each new law change with DGEM users in mind. Our goal is to make it easy to keep documents in compliance for both document users and their adopting employers. For example, in some circumstances, such as with the final regulations regarding Hardship Distributions, interim amendments may need to be signed by individual employers (plan sponsors). To help with this logistically cumbersome and time-consuming challenge, ASC provides an Interim Amendment Wizard (Wizard) as a standard feature in DGEM. The Wizard makes the adoption of the Interim Amendment easy by allowing the Plan Provider to choose default elections that apply to most of their clients. Plan sponsors that choose those default elections do not have to sign the interim amendment, dramatically decreasing the number of plan sponsors who need to sign the interim amendment. This instantly saves both Plan Providers and their plan sponsors time and hassle.
The Wizard permits Plan Providers to choose the elections for each plan via a checklist. You can set the default provisions in the Wizard and avoid data entry for most plans. Only plans that choose elections different from your defaults need to be addressed separately. The interim amendment package also includes a customized Summary of Material Modifications generated from the checklist. Interim amendment packages can be generated individually or in batch or emailed directly to your plan sponsors, enhancing your efficiency even more.
Your time savings don’t end there! The interim amendment elections for each plan are stored in the DGEM System so that the next time the plan is amended or restated, the interim amendment elections are automatically pulled into the Plan Checklist and the interim amendment will be incorporated as an addendum to the amended or restated plan. Not only does this feature save time, it eliminates human error as well, thus minimizing the risk of making a mistake resulting in a mismatch between the interim amendment and the amended or restated document.
Although the specifics of the SECURE, CARES, Miners and TCDTRA CAATCDTRA (Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2020) Acts Interim Amendment are not finalized, we have created one interim amendment, rather than four separate interim amendments. Through the Wizard, DGEM users are able to choose elections for their plans, such as:
- Adding in-service withdrawals for the birth or adoption of a child up to $5,000;
- Permitting in-service distributions at age 59 ½ for money purchase pension plans;
- Increasing the maximum limit for QACA Safe Harbor 401(k) Plans to 15%;
- Adding coronavirus-related distributions and loans; and
- Implementing the delayed adoption of a Safe Harbor Nonelective 401(k) feature.
In using ASC’s DGEM System and Wizard, not only is time saved and risk reduced when amending or restating plans, users have the peace of mind knowing that down the road, there is no need to redo the work when plans need to be updated.
To schedule a demo, call us at 877-513-2183 x1 or email sales@asc-net.com.
