COVID-19 Emergency Response
Critical Cash Flow Relief Needed for Small Business Retirement Plans
The economic challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic present to small businesses are unprecedented in modern times. Small businesses across the United States are being forced to shut down for an unknown time to slow the spread of the disease, which is causing a cash flow issue.
Small businesses need immediate relief. The American Retirement Association, whose broad membership consists of service providers and plan sponsors, strongly supports immediate defined contribution plan funding relief that will allow plan sponsors to continue to provide a retirement plan for their rank and file workers.
The American Retirement Association proposes:
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all plan sponsors with a defined contribution plan be allowed, on a prospective basis, to suspend their required employer contributions to their plan for 2020; and
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plan sponsors with less than 500 participants be allowed to waive any employer contributions that have not yet been made to satisfy their 2019 obligations.