On December 30, the Department of Treasury (“Treasury”) and the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) released a notice of proposed rules relating to the use of an electronic medium for retirement plan participant elections and...more
The IRS issued new proposed regulations that would permanently change the rules that require spousal consent for plan distributions to be signed in the physical presence of a notary or plan representative. Specifically, the...more
The IRS recently issued Notice 2022-27, providing a six-month extension of the temporary relief from the physical presence requirement for certain plan elections (including spousal consents) required to be witnessed by a plan...more
As the COVID-19 pandemic drags on, administrators of defined benefit pension plans continue to field questions about the notary requirement related to certain participant and spousal elections. For qualified retirement plans...more
Certain elections made by participants and spouses under retirement plans must be signed “in the physical presence of a plan representative or a notary public.” The IRS provided relief from this physical presence requirement...more
On June 24, 2021, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) released Notice 2021-40, which extended relief from the “physical presence” requirement for witnessing by plan representatives or notaries of spousal consents through...more
On December 23, 2020, the IRS issued Notice 2021-03, which extends relief from the “physical presence” requirement applicable to signatures that must be witnessed by a plan representative or notary public. By way of...more
The Covid-19 pandemic has created numerous challenges for retirement plan administrators. One such challenge is how to comply with the requirement to obtain a participant’s written signature to get a distribution from a...more
In June, the IRS provided temporary relief that allows for spousal consents for retirement plan loans or distributions to be witnessed remotely through audio visual equipment by a notary public in accordance with a state...more
COVID-19 has made traditional notarization, where the notary is in the same physical location as the signatory, a potentially hazardous and often undesirable requirement. Many states have reacted to this by permitting remote...more
Congress acted swiftly to allow participants greater access to their retirement plan funds through special withdrawal and loan provisions in recognition of the financial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. See our blog post on...more