At the end of 2022, Congress passed its omnibus spending bill, including the SECURE 2.0 Act, which is intended to streamline certain aspects of retirement plan administration and expand access to employer-sponsored retirement plans. After months of wondering whether the proposed legislation would pass, tax practitioners and employers finally have an answer and can begin preparing for the implementation of the long-awaited legislation. However, as best-laid plans often go awry, we are beginning to see areas where the legislation may complicate plan administration rather than streamlining it.
Plan sponsors should take note as the legislation touches a variety of plan provisions, including everything from required automatic enrollment features in new plans to expanded (and more complex) catch-up contribution limits to decreased thresholds for required participant eligibility. Some of the changes to plan provisions are required, while others are optional. Also, while certain provisions became effective immediately, many more will phase in over the next few years. This staggered timeline will hopefully allow for the necessary guidance to be issued while plan sponsors begin to work with their payroll providers, recordkeepers, and other service providers to implement these changes. Join Kevin M. Jacobs and Patrick Blanchard, Managing Directors at Alvarez & Marsal, and Matthew Grunert, Partner at Bracewell, for this essential conversation. Attendees will hear about both the legal impacts of some of these changes as well as the administrative challenges plan sponsors will face that may not be covered in the recordkeeping updates that are already starting to be rolled out.
Learning Objectives:
Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting
Lead Project Manager
As a Corporate Research Field Sales Representative for Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting, Kevin has primary responsibility for driving profitable sales growth in an assigned territory that meets or exceeds sales goals. The products sold are CCH tax, accounting, and audit research product lines. Activities include learning and staying informed on the complex and comprehensive Tax & Accounting research product lines; learning and following a comprehensive sales process (including cold calling); updating and managing sales pipeline information for an assigned list of accounts; managing time and resources effectively; representing Wolters Kluwer within the industry and territory; and contributing to the sales planning and forecasting activities.
Alvarez & Marsal Holdings LLC
Managing Director
[email protected]
(303) 779-2089
Mr. Blanchard’s experience includes performing nondiscrimination testing with a particular emphasis on complex controlled groups and unique testing conditions (e.g., subsequent to M&A activity); representing plan sponsors in Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Department of Labor (DOL) examinations; assisting plan sponsors to identify and correct operational failures under the IRS and DOL correction programs; and assisting employers throughout the process of adopting or making significant changes to retirement programs.
Additionally, Mr. Blanchard assists clients with their non-qualified deferred compensation plans and other compensation programs to ensure compliance with all applicable statutes and guidance.
Prior to joining A&M, Mr. Blanchard was a Managing Director with Compensation & Benefit Solutions, a leading provider of compensation and benefit services based in Denver.
Alvarez & Marsal Holdings LLC
Managing Director
[email protected]
(212) 759-4433
Prior to joining A&M, Mr. Jacobs was a Senior Technician Reviewer (TCJA) with the IRS Office of Associate Chief Counsel (Corporate) for more than six years, where he advised on tax issues such as corporate re-organizations and corporation-shareholder issues, earning and profits, recovery and allocation of stock basis, liquidations, redemptions, bankruptcies, spin-offs and consolidated returns.
While with the IRS, Mr. Jacobs was the principal Associate Chief Counsel (Corporate) attorney on several regulatory projects including the proposed section 382(h) regulations on built-in gains and losses, the global intangible low-taxed income regulations, and debt-equity regulations. He provided substantial contributions to other guidance projects such as the limitation on interest deductions regulations, and assisted in overseeing the Corporate Division’s response to TCJA, including the coordination with Treasury’s Offices of Tax Legislative Counsel and International Tax Counsel. Previously, Mr. Jacobs spent more than nine years at law and certified public accounting firms (Ropes & Gray LLP, Latham & Watkins LLP, Dewey Ballantine LLP and Arthur Andersen LLP).
Mr. Jacobs earned a bachelor's degree in accounting, a master’s degree in accounting (taxation concentration), a JD (magna cum laude) from the University of Florida and an LLM in taxation from New York University. He is admitted to the District of Columbia and Florida Bars and is a licensed Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in Florida and Colorado. Mr. Jacobs is a member of the American Bar Association and the New York State Bar Association. He is a frequent speaker on numerous corporate transaction tax matters.
Matt Grunert advises clients on a broad range of compensation and employee benefits matters for public and closely-held companies, as well as private equity funds and portfolio companies. He has vast experience counseling clients with the design, implementation and ongoing operation of Section 409A non-qualified deferred compensation plans and equity compensation arrangements, including stock options, restricted stock, phantom stock, Section 162(m) grandfathering issues and partnership profits interests.