The Department of Labor (DOL) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) require certain documents, notices, and other disclosures to be provided to both currently active and dismissed participants when certain events occur.
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Therefore, it’s important for plan sponsors to ensure accurate contact details are listed within their Guideline Roster, so we can share these documents accordingly.
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In the event that Guideline does not have accurate participant contact details, as per our Terms of Service (page 20), we must rely on you as the plan sponsor to distribute the documents to any participants that we are unable to contact.
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For participants who consent to receiving electronic disclosures and have an accurate email address on file, Guideline will furnish all required plan information and notices.
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If an employee does not have an email account and access to a computer as a part of their job, Guideline requires the sponsor to ensure that a personal or company-issued email account is set up, as well as computer and internet access.
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If a plan sponsor is unable to provide Guideline with accurate contact information for an employee or an employee has opted-out of electronic communications, the responsibility to provide appropriate disclosures or notices will typically fall to the plan sponsor. Please note that Guideline receiving a “bounced back” email is deemed to be the participant opting out of electronic communications by both the IRS and DOL.
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Copies of required notices will be posted in the Resource Library of your sponsor dashboard to distribute to the necessary participants. You may choose to distribute the notices by mail, email (if the participant has consented to use of their personal email), or any other means that will ensure the participant will receive the information. If a notice is emailed, the employee must always be advised that they may request a hard copy, without charge, which must be provided upon request.
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If you are able to obtain updated information for a participant, you can add the contact details in your Guideline Roster. This will aid Guideline in directly distributing future notices to participants rather than you needing to share the information.
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Employees must receive initial and recurring notices when they become eligible to participate in the plan. Additionally, participants must be notified when a plan terminates or sponsor or administrator information changes.
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Employees who are no longer employed with the company but who were eligible to participate during a given period or have open accounts in the plan must also receive notices in many cases.
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Examples of the notices and disclosures Guideline provides include:

It’s important that participants receive these documents and notices when required.
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If documents and notices are not distributed timely, penalties may accrue. Penalties vary based on the type of document or notice that was not distributed. For example, costs for a tardy blackout notice can be as much as $100 per participant per day. Thus, it is important to make your best effort to keep participant contact information up to date or distribute notices provided by Guideline to those without necessary information.
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Learn more about notice requirements and correcting plan operational errors on the IRS website.