Every six years, we're required by the IRS to update your pre-approved plan documents to include any new regulatory changes that occurred since the documents were previously written. When this occurs, your plan trustee must review and sign these documents. The latest Cycle 3 deadline was July 31, 2022.
Your plan trustee should have received a task within their dashboard as well as an email notification to sign the updated plan documents before the deadline. If you missed this deadline, it’s important to complete the task as soon as possible to avoid compliance risks to your plan. If your plan’s trustee has changed, you can find more information on how to update this role here.
Please note, the trustee will need to sign and approve the required changes related to Cycle 3 restatement before making any other changes to the plan. Once updated plan documents are signed, you can request to make any other updates to the plan design.
How to sign your Cycle 3 documents
A task titled, “Sign your updated plan documents,” will appear on the trustee’s dashboard. Note only your plan’s trustee will be able to see and complete this task.
After beginning the task, you will be prompted to review the instructions. To initiate the process, click “Start.”
Then, you’ll be prompted to confirm your business address and phone number.
After clicking “Save and continue,” you can review the changes made to the plan documents.
Then, click “Continue to signing” to review and sign your updated plan documents.
Once you click “Sign and approve,” an updated standard plan document, adoption agreement and service agreement will be uploaded into your plan’s Resource Library.
Once the plan documents are signed, a confirmation email will be sent to the trustee, primary benefit administrator, and other collaborators on the plan.
As a result, your plan will have a pre-approved document recognized by the IRS. An audit, therefore, cannot challenge the pre-approved language in this document. It also demonstrates to the IRS that you are monitoring and complying with deadlines.
To learn more about the Cycle 3 restatement and get answers to FAQs, see here.