June 2025

TIPS AND TOOLS

Stay on track for success: Midyear plan check-in

The summer months can be a great time to catch your breath, spend some time outdoors and gather with friends and family. But it’s also a great time for employers to address some strategic issues regarding their retirement plans. Summer is when you should take a little time to review your plan design with an eye toward making changes that will help you stay ahead of competitive trends and strategic needs. And for those in a fiduciary role, it’s important to take this opportunity to make sure that your fiduciary committee is following a solid governance calendar.

Here are the questions you should be thinking about this summer.

Plan design

  • How does your plan stack up in the competitive environment, both locally and in your industry?
  • Safe harbor plans require a notice 30 to 90 days prior to start of the year. Have you decided if your plan will be a safe harbor plan in the coming year?
  • Evaluate your automatic enrollment plan. 65% of larger plans have automatic enrollment,1 putting employee inertia to work for them. Does yours? Does it also include auto-increase? (We believe an ideal target of deferral and match should be 12% to 15%.) Have you swept in employees not enrolled prior to introducing automatic enrollment?
  • Complying with new SECURE 2.0 Act requirements may require time to ensure operational readiness. Are you on track and working with your payroll provider and other partners?
  • Design trends continue to evolve. Have you considered shorter eligibility periods, shorter vesting schedules and additional post-employment distribution flexibility?
  • Have you thought about the needs of your retirees? Ask us about Merrill 401(k) Pay, a retirement paycheck feature within Personal Retirement Strategy that will allow participants to set up recurring deposits from their 401(k) account into a bank account of their choosing, conveniently from the app or website. (Planned to launch 4Q 2025.)

Fiduciary calendar

  • Be sure you understand the fiduciary role of your advisors. Have you leveraged the administrative and other services offered through your provider or advisors?
  • Does your governance calendar include a periodic investment review relative to your plan’s investment policy statement?
  • Have you reviewed fees charged to the plan for reasonableness?
  • Has your counsel reviewed the litigation risk environment?

Key takeaways

  • Use our helpful fiduciary checklist to confidently stay on top of your plan’s fiduciary governance and procedures.
  • Brush up on your fiduciary knowledge and responsibilities with our on-demand fiduciary education video series.
  • Speak with your Bank of America representative about optimal benchmarking and plan design strategies.

Personal Retirement Strategy is an online investment advisory program sponsored by Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. (“MLPF&S” or “Merrill”) that uses a probabilistic approach to determine the likelihood that participants in the program will accumulate sufficient total assets to achieve their annual retirement income goal. The recommendations provided by Personal Retirement Strategy may include a higher level of investment risk than a participant may be personally comfortable with. Participants are strongly advised to consider their personal goals, overall risk tolerance, and retirement horizon before accepting any recommendations made by Personal Retirement Strategy. Participants should carefully review the explanation of the methodology used, including key assumptions and limitations, as well as a description of services and related fees which is provided in the Personal Retirement Strategy Brochure (ADV Part 2A). It can be obtained through Benefits OnLine® or through the Retirement Benefits Contact Center.

Merrill offers a broad range of brokerage, investment advisory and other services. There are important differences between brokerage and investment advisory services, including the type of advice and assistance provided, the fees charged, and the rights and obligations of the parties. It is important to understand the differences, particularly when determining which service or services to select.

IMPORTANT: The projections or other information shown in the Personal Retirement Strategy program regarding the likelihood of various investment outcomes are hypothetical in nature, do not reflect actual investment results and are not guarantees of future results. Results may vary with each use and over time.

Any new products, services, enhancements and release dates are subject to change based solely on Bank of America decision, including not proceeding with a planned offering.

Footnotes

1 Based on Bank of America recordkeeping data from plan sponsors with more than 1,000 employees, as of March 31, 2025.