What Is An Erisa 404 C Plan?

Found outdated 404(a) notices or stale fee disclosures in your 401(k) plan? Grab the Plan Fee Audit Tool from your provider dashboard and blast fresh disclosures to every active participant. In most cases, that single step fixes compliance gaps within a day.

What’s Happening: ERISA 404(a) Compliance Gaps

Since 2026, the Department of Labor (DOL) has kept the screws tight on these rules per their latest guidance. Miss the deadline, leave a figure blank, or misstate a number, and you’re staring at penalties plus the very real chance of a participant lawsuit. The usual suspects? Outdated 404(a)(5) fee breakdowns or missing 408(b)(2) service-provider disclosures.

Step-by-Step Solution

1. Access the Fee Disclosure Dashboard:
   • Log in to your plan sponsor portal.
   • Head to Reports > Compliance > ERISA 404(a).
   • Make sure the system is set to auto-generate disclosures for active employees (look for “Cycle Type” set to Annual).
2. Audit the Fee Data:
   • Fire up the Plan Fee Audit Tool (it’s under Tools > Fee Compliance).
   • Double-check that every fee—administrative, investment, advisory—matches the latest 408(b)(2) service-provider statement dated within the last 60 days.
   • Spot any “orphaned” participants (ex-employees still getting mail) and yank them from the list.
3. Regenerate and Distribute Disclosures:
   • Click Regenerate Disclosures and pick 404(a)(5) Participant Fee Disclosure.
   • Flip through the PDF in the portal viewer. Make sure footnotes cite the right fee sources—e.g., “Investment fees sourced from Fidelity Freedom Funds prospectus, dated 03/2026.”
   • Schedule both email and snail-mail delivery (the DOL wants paper copies for anyone without digital access). Set the send date at least 30 days before any fee hikes take effect.
4. Document Compliance:
   • Save the disclosure PDF to Documents > ERISA Compliance > 2026.
   • Log the distribution date in the portal’s audit trail—inspectors from the DOL will ask for it.

If This Didn’t Work

• Manual Override for Fee Errors:
  • Pull the fee data as a CSV (under Reports > Data Export).
  • Edit the file to clean up any mislabeled investment fees.
  • Re-upload the file and regenerate the disclosures.
• Provider Support Escalation:
  • Ring up your 401(k) provider’s ERISA compliance hotline. Mention the DOL’s 404(c) compliance guide as the gold standard.
  • Ask for a compliance specialist to eyeball your investment menu—it must offer at least three diversified options to meet 404(c).

Prevention Tips

Plans on automated payroll sync should flip the switch for real-time fee syncing in provider settings. That way, disclosures always show the latest investment returns and expense ratios. According to the IRS, this cuts the odds of discrepancies that come from stale data.