The New Retirement Plan Electronic Disclosure Rules: A Much Needed Update

It would be an understatement to say the Department of Labor rules governing the use of electronic technologies for distributing required employee benefit plan disclosures have needed updating. The most recent amendment before this year was in 2002, which was also the year Apple introduced its second generation iPod (remember the first iPhone was not released until 2007), the first cell phone with a built in camera was made available publicly, and Quickbooks was introduced by Intuit. Fortunately, newly finalized and now effective regulations supplement the 2002 DOL electronic disclosure rules by providing an additional and a much more user-friendly safe harbor for retirement plans (but unfortunately not for health and welfare plans). We anticipate most retirement plan sponsors and administrators will find the new safe harbor much easier to use than the existing rules and that the administrative costs and burdens of making required plan disclosures will be reduced.