This advisory reminds plan sponsors of deadlines for amending qualified retirement plans and for submitting certain plans to the IRS for a determination letter, as well as other significant changes to the determination letter process.

In some years, qualified retirement plans must adopt required amendments before certain deadlines. Although it appears that for most plans no such amendments are required in 2016, plan sponsors that have added optional features to a retirement plan during 2016 (e.g., a plan loan feature) must ensure that the associated “discretionary” amendments are signed no later than December 31, 2016 (for calendar-year plans). If you have made any discretionary amendments, you should take some time to make sure they have been formally adopted by the end of the year.