Deadline Approaching for Safe Harbor Match in 401(k) Plans

Our deadline for new start-up 401(k) plans wishing to include a Safe Harbor Match provision in their 2024 plan design is August 12, 2024. 

If you have an executed agreement by this date, you can still set up a new Safe Harbor Match plan for 2024. Otherwise, you can still establish a 401(k) plan, but without the Safe Harbor Match feature, or add the Safe Harbor Match for 2025.

IRS rules and regulations state that, for the first year of a startup Safe Harbor Match plan, the plan – and the opportunity for participants to make elective deferrals – must be in effect for a minimum of three months, meaning it must be in effect with elective deferrals available no later than October 1. Safe Harbor Nonelective plans can still be established after the October 1 deadline.

For any existing 401(k) clients looking to implement a Safe Harbor Match for 2025, the deadline to amend the plan is December 1. By this date, participants need to be notified that the plan will be adding a Safe Harbor Match in 2025. The deadline to submit amendment requests is November 1, 2024.