The American Bankers Association (ABA) is among eight organizations advocating the Department of Labor (DOL) consider regulations expanding electronic delivery for retirement plan disclosures and notices.
ABA officials said they are in support of a proposal allowing plan sponsors to make electronic delivery the default method of delivery for retirement plan disclosures and notices unless an employee otherwise requests paper copies.
The American Council of Life Insurers, American Retirement Association, ERISA Industry Committee, Investment Company Institute, Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, SPARK Institute and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are joining the ABA in seeking the proposal’s adoption.
The initiative would be consistent with an executive order issued by President Donald
Trump last summer directing the DOL to review actions making retirement plan disclosures more understandable and useful.
The order also instructed DOL to consider how to reduce the costs and burdens they impose on employers and other plan fiduciaries responsible for their production and distribution, including banks acting as ERISA fiduciaries and service providers for plans.
ABA will continue to engage with the DOL as it considers the issuance of a proposal.
The organizations maintain the Department could immediately propose regulations to expand the use of electronic delivery while simultaneously issuing a request for information (RFI) on ways to make the content of retirement plan disclosures and notices more understandable and useful for retirement savers.