Many Retirement Plans Must Be Amended by December 31, 2026

Collectively bargained single-employer plans and multiemployer plans do not have to be amended for the Acts’ discretionary provisions until December 31, 2028. Non-collectively bargained single-employer plans of multiemployer fund trusts are single-employer plans subject to the December 31, 2026 deadline. Governmental plans do not have to be amended for the discretionary provisions until December 31, 2028 or December 31, 2029, depending on the type of governmental plan.

Summary of Amendment Dates

* However, if the first day of the first plan year beginning more than 180 days after the date of notification by the Secretary of the Treasury that the plan was administered in a manner inconsistent with the requirements of Internal Revenue Code section 457(b) is later than December 31, 2029, that later date is the amendment date.

The Acts appeared to require non-collectively bargained, non-governmental, single-employer plans to amend for both discretionary and required changes by December 31, 2026. However, the IRS’s September 18, 2026 Employee Plans newsletter specified separate dates for discretionary amendments and required amendments.

All plan sponsors have additional time to make amendments for changes required by the Acts and related regulations. Those amendments need not be made until two calendar years after they are specified on the IRS Required Amendment List (RAL).

Discretionary amendments not related to the Acts are still generally tied to the end of the plan year in which they are adopted. However, amendments for certain benefit increases can be delayed until the plan’s tax filing date and still have retroactive effective dates.

The delay in the plan amendment deadline for the Acts and related regulations does not change when a plan had to operate in accordance with a provision. The operational date is tied to the effective date of the provision.

Amendments for discretionary provisions already being applied by the plan should be made retroactive to when the plan first operated in accordance with the discretionary provision.

Discretionary amendments

The Acts include an extensive number of discretionary provisions that, if adopted, require amendments. (See the last section for additional information on the Acts and related regulations, including links to our insights.)

Notable discretionary amendments include the following provisions:

• A defined benefit, money purchase or governmental 457(b) plan may allow in-service distributions as early as age 59½.
• A profit-sharing plan may allow in-service distributions before age 59½ without any 10 percent premature distribution tax in the following circumstances:
  • A distribution of up to $5,000 for births or adoptions
  • A distribution of up to $10,000 for domestic abuse
  • A distribution to a terminally ill individual
  • A distribution of up to $1,000 (every three years) for emergencies
  • A distribution of up to $2,500 from a pension-linked emergency savings account (PLESA) (For information on PLESAs, see our January 18, 2024 insight, “IRS Guidance on Pension Linked Emergency Savings Accounts.”)
• A plan may allow additional catch-up contributions for participants ages 60–63 starting in 2026. (For higher-income employees, they must be treated as Roth contributions, but the amendment for that required treatment is not required at this time.)
• A plan may allow participants to elect to treat matching and employer contributions as Roth contributions.
• A plan may set the limit for mandatory lump-sum contributions as high as $7,000.
• A plan may count student loan repayments as matching contributions for nondiscrimination testing purposes.
• A 401(k) plan or 403(b) annuity may provide for self-certification of hardship.
• A defined contribution plan may provide for certain automatic distribution and loan rules in the case of a federally declared disaster.

Required amendments

Under IRS Rev. Proc. 2022-40, required amendments do not have to be made until two calendar years after the item appears on the RAL. However, a plan must operate in a reasonable, good-faith manner as of the applicable provision’s effective date in accordance with the terms of the statute. Generally, following a proposed amendment is a reasonable, good-faith interpretation.

The 2025 RAL included only one change: the amendments to the required minimum distribution (RMD) provisions. Final regulations have been issued on most of the statutory RMD provisions. Thus, the two-year delay means amendments would be required by December 31, 2027.

The IRS specifies in its recent amendment guidance, the September 18, 2026 Employee Plans newsletter, that final regulations on automatic enrollment for new 401(k) plans, the required availability of elective contributions for part-time participants under age 21, and any remaining RMD regulations are expected to be on the 2026 RAL. Two years later would be December 31, 2028.

Discretionary amendments not related to the Acts

IRS rules have generally required discretionary amendments to be made by the end of the plan year in which they are effective. They can be retroactive to the first day of the plan year provided the amendment does not cut back accrued benefits. Section 316 of SECURE 2.0 allows amendments that increase benefits — other than a matching contribution in a 401(k) plan — to be made as late as the tax filing date of the employer or trust (in the case of a multiemployer plan) for the plan year in which the amendment is effective.

Special Financial Assistance amendment

While multiemployer plans do not have to be amended for changes related to the Acts by December 31, 2026, they still may have to be amended for other changes. For example, as provided under Notice 2022-62, multiemployer plans that receive Special Financial Assistance (SFA) from the PBGC must adopt the proposed SFA amendment regarding make-up payments and benefit restoration (that was required to be included in their SFA application) by the end of the plan year in which the plan amendment is operationally put into effect.

Steps for plan sponsors to take

The amendment dates and the need for retroactive amendments in many cases are complex and should be discussed with the plan’s or employer’s legal counsel.

Voluntary defined contribution plan changes should be coordinated with recordkeepers to be sure they can administer them.

Many of the required amendments had to be followed in operation even though the amendment is not yet required. Sponsors may want to consider amending plans for those provisions now. For example, most of the RMD regulations are already published. (See our July 25, 2024 insight, “Treasury Guidance on Retirement Plan RMDs.”) At this time, a plan may want to amend their RMD language, including changes to the required beginning date ages, without waiting for the ultimate required amendment date. This should be discussed with counsel.

Additional information on the Acts and related regulations

Starting with the SECURE Act, certain statutes allow plan sponsors to delay making amendments until a common later date. Plans are required to comply in operation from each statute’s effective date. The later amendments have relief from the restrictions on cutting back accrued benefits.

The ability to delay amendments applies to these laws as well as related guidance:

• The SECURE Act, discussed in our March 4, 2020 insight, "What Plan Sponsors May Need to Change for the SECURE Act"
• The Bipartisan American Miners Act of 2019 (Miners Act)
• The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Securities Act (CARES Act), discussed in our March 30, 2020 insight, "Impact of CARES Act on Retirement Plans"
• The Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2020 (Disaster Relief Act)
• The SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (SECURE 2.0 Act), discussed in our January 4, 2023 insight, "SECURE 2.0 Retirement Reform Becomes Law"

Also, see our January 12, 2024 insight, "IRS ‘Grab‑Bag’ Guidance Extends Pension Plan Amendment Date." See our additional insights, including on relevant Treasury guidance.