Watch for Restated Retirement Plan Summary Plan Descriptions

The final step of the Retirement Security (RS) and 401(k) Pension Plan restatement process is to download and distribute your cooperative’s summary plan descriptions (SPDs). Give the new SPDs to employees who currently participate in the RS and 401(k) Plans as soon as possible, but no later than July 29, 2018. Give the most current SPDs to newly hired employees as they become eligible for plan participation.

Once you’ve returned your restatement paperwork, watch for a Message Center notification with a link to your co-op’s SPDs on the Employee Benefits website. You can expect this alert before the end of 2017, after your restatement documents are received in good order and processing is complete.

You must also fill out the online distribution acknowledgement form after giving the SPDs to your employees. The acknowledgement form is located on the Retirement Plan Documents page. Look for it under the “Documents Requiring Acknowledgement” subsection. You can acknowledge distribution for more than one SPD in the same step, provided the SPDs share the same distribution date.

The BA Guide has full instructions for distributing plan documents. In addition, visit the Retirement Plan Restatements page for full details about the restatements, including deadlines, FAQs, and SPD distribution information. If you have questions about the restatements or about distributing retirement SPDs that are not answered by these online instructions, contact the retirement compliance team at 866.673.2299, option 7, or pension.compliance@nreca.coop.