Plan Sponsor Responsibilities

1. The Plan Sponsor must ensure the Plan remains in compliance with federal regulations. Compliance responsibilities include:
   • Your plan document must be written to comply with all requirements in the Internal Revenue Code.
   • Your plan must be administered to follow its terms in operation.
   • Review your plan annually to make sure it’s operating according to its terms and the law.
2.  The Plan Sponsor is also responsible for:
   • Making sure that all government reporting deadlines are met.
   • Notices are distributed to employees and participants.
   • Know your enrollment dates and payroll dates, these dates are especially important if you have employees.
   • Filing year-end forms. The Plan sponsor is responsible for filing all Plan Year End information such as employee census and/or summary, and Internal Revenue Service form 5500. Please see ‘Plan Requirements’ for more information about these requirements.
3.  Implementing your Retirement Plan. Understand how your Retirement Plan operates. Refer to the Adoption Agreement that we have provided to you. Know what your adoption agreement says about:
   • When your employees are eligible to participate in the plan;
   • Types and amounts of allowable plan contributions;
   • How employer contributions are divided among participants;
   • When participants are vested; and
   • When and how benefits are paid.
4.  Maintaining your Retirement Plan. Once you’ve established a retirement plan, you assume certain responsibilities in operating the plan. Your duties will vary depending on the type of plan you choose, but in general will include:
   • Enroll participants in the plan when they’re eligible.
   • Make contributions required by the plan terms.
   • Withhold the appropriate amount of salary deferrals, if your plan allows them, and timely deposit the deferrals in employees’ individual accounts.
   • Notify participants when certain events occur.
   • Perform annual testing to determine if your plan benefits discriminate in favor of highly compensated employees, if required.
   • File annual reports with the IRS, DOL and PBGC, if required.
   • Make distributions and loans in accordance with the plan terms.
   • Amend your plan document as necessary to reflect current laws.
   • If errors occur in operating your plan, correct them as soon as possible to keep your plan tax-qualified.
5.  Develop internal controls to maintain your plan. Formal review procedures can help you find and prevent mistakes in administering your plan. Internal controls should include procedures for:
   • Compare salary deferral election forms with the amounts deducted from employees’ wages.
   • Verify the types of compensation used for allocations, deferrals and testing.
   • Check that plan service providers received accurate compensation and ownership records.
   • Monitor annual contribution and compensation limits.
   • Verify the validity of rollover contributions to the plan.
   • Verify that years of service were accurately determined for eligibility and vesting.
   • Verify marital status and spousal consent for plan distributions.
   • Ensure participants received required minimum distributions.

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