By Jerry Geisel, Crain News Service
WASHINGTON (July 23, 2013) — The U.S. Department of Labor is giving employers more time to comply with a 2012 final rule that requires 401(k) and other defined contribution plan administrators to distribute to participants an annual chart disclosing fee and investment-related information, expenses.
Under earlier rules, the first chart had to be distributed no later than Aug. 30, 2012, and the second chart was due Aug. 30, 2013.
But in a notice released July 22, the Labor Department said plan administrators may reset the deadline for the second chart and third chart provided that no more than 18 months pass before plan participants receive their next comparative chart.
For example, if a plan administrator distributed the first chart on Aug. 25, 2012, the 2013 chart could be furnished as late as Feb. 25, 2014.
In the case of a plan that already provided its 2013 chart, an 18-month rule also would apply. For example, if a plan distributed its first chart on Aug. 25, 2012, and planned to distribute its second chart on Aug. 25, 2013, it could file its third chart as late as Feb. 25, 2015.
Permitting "a one-time reset of the deadline will allow plan administrators to align the comparative chart with other participant disclosures," the Labor Department said in the notice.
Among other things the chart lists by category the name of each investment option, such as equity or bond funds; the website for each investment option, the average annual total return over the last year, five years, 10 years and since inception; and rates of return for the comparable time periods for a benchmark index applicable for each index.
This report appeared in Business Insurance magazine, a Chicago-based sister publication of Tire Business.