Proposed Updates To ERISA Electronic Disclosure Requirements

The Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) under the Department of Labor (DOL) recently published proposed regulations requiring significant changes to how retirement plans deliver benefit statements to participants and beneficiaries. The proposed regulation implements Section 338 of the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022, which amended Section 105(a)(2) of ERISA to require retirement plans to provide paper benefit statements in certain cases and instructed the DOL to update its electronic disclosure safe harbors accordingly. Plan sponsors should act now to understand what is changing and what steps they will need to take to comply.

In putting forward its proposal, the EBSA cites a 2022 survey by the American Association for Retired Persons that showed 55% of respondents always reviewed their paper statements, compared to 36% of respondents who always reviewed their electronic-only statements.