With our electronic loan service, available at no additional cost, plans can take advantage of online loan requests and approvals, real-time notifications, automatic loan policy creation and more.
Plans can simply submit the loan services election form to enable the service.
With ICanRetire®, our digital participant engagement program, participants can take advantage of the Action Plan, an enhanced interactive tool that converts engagement into clear, actionable next steps for participants. The tool personalizes responses based on each participant.
Integrated within the Action Plan, is the Matchmaker tool, which uses plan-specific details to show how small contribution increases can help participants capture their full employer match.
You can now add investment options from other fund managers for a low fee, while keeping the same RecordkeeperDirect experience.
It’s a good idea for plan sponsors to evaluate their plans at least once a year. To help with this process, we offer the following resources online:
Log in to the Plan Sponsor site to get started.
We’ve updated the names of four of the vintages in the American Funds Target Date Retirement Series to reflect the funds’ focus on income after reaching the retirement target date. The change impacts the following funds:
• American Funds 2010 Target Date Retirement Fund® is now the American Funds 2010 Target Date Retirement Income Fund
• American Funds 2015 Target Date Retirement Fund® is now the American Funds 2015 Target Date Retirement Income Fund
• American Funds 2020 Target Date Retirement Fund® is now the American Funds 2020 Target Date Retirement Income Fund
• American Funds 2025 Target Date Retirement Fund® is now the American Funds 2025 Target Date Retirement Income Fund
The name change does not affect the investments in any other way, including the fund objectives, strategies, portfolios and management. Going forward, we will continue to add “Income” to the target date fund names after each fund’s target date is reached.
Stay up to date on the Spanish-language services we offer to help participants. This overview sheet has a handy list of the many documents and other resources available, from enrollment books for eligible employees to live customer service, educational brochures and more.
The sheet includes a breakdown of which resources are available for each of our recordkeeping solutions, so you can easily show plan sponsor clients and prospects what’s available for their participants.
The IRS recently released new contribution limits for 2026, raising the limits across most plan types.
• For participants, the maximum salary deferral is $24,500.
• Total combined contributions from employee and employer combined are limited to the lesser of 100% of pay or $72,000.
• Participants age 50 to 59 and 64+ can make additional catch-up contributions* above the maximums of up to $8,000. For employees aged 60 to 63 only,† a higher catch-up contribution limit of $11,250 replaces the 50+ catch-up contribution limit.
With the new contribution limits, you can help participants create a customized retirement savings plan by encouraging them to log in to the participant website and leverage our Retirement goals tool.
Footnotes/Important information:
* If allowed by the plan.
† The higher catch-up limit is only applicable to participants who attain ages 60, 61, 62 or 63 in 2026.
Tour the RecordkeeperDirect participant website with our new, interactive demo. The demo allows you to experience how participants can use the site for everything from account management to changing their contributions and investments to setting retirement goals. To get started, use the button below and click Log In to enter the site.
Existing RecordkeeperDirect plan sponsors can now add investment options from other fund managers for a low fee. It’s the same recordkeeping experience you know, with the benefit of expanded fund flexibility to help participants pursue their retirement savings goals. Complete the Change of funds or share class form to get started.
Starting January 1, 2026, catch-up contributions for participants who earned more than $150,000 (indexed annually) in Social Security FICA wages in the prior calendar year must be made as Roth contributions.
Plans that don’t allow Roth contributions should consider adding Roth elective deferrals as a contribution type. If a plan does not offer Roth contributions, higher-paid participants subject to the Roth catch-up requirement will not be able to make catch-up contributions. If you don’t want to offer Roth contributions, you may also remove the option to make catch-up contributions.
We encourage you to work with your payroll provider now to ensure catch-up contributions for higher-paid participants are directed appropriately. For plans that automatically switch catch-up contributions from pretax to Roth when a participant is subject to the Roth catch-up requirement, the sponsor/payroll provider is responsible for changing impacted participants’ deferrals from pretax to Roth. For plans that don’t have a Roth source, sponsor/payroll providers are responsible for stopping impacted participants’ deferrals when the applicable deferral limit is reached.
We can help you comply with this requirement by collecting a new high-earner indicator on our system that identifies participants who are subject to the Roth catch-up requirement. The indicator will drive reports with relevant data to assist with contribution processing and identifying any participants that may require corrections.
Watch for more details soon, including information on how to add the high-earner indicator to the recordkeeping system.
The Save-o-meter is a new tool available on the ICanRetire homepage that’s designed to help participants maximize their company match. Now, participants can better see if they’re leaving free money on the table.
We’ve also refreshed the existing planning calculator to include an option for employer matching. If matching isn’t available, participants can enter 0%.
Both tools are available on the ICanRetire homepage.
Signing up for eligibility tracking, online enrollment, automatic enrollment and beneficiary tracking can simplify the process of offering a retirement plan.
If your plan is already taking advantage of these features, you’ll likely have more participants using these options as we are nearing the end of the year.
And if you haven’t signed up yet, keep a lookout for upcoming webinar invitations where you can learn more about these time-saving features. You may also contact us if you’re unable to attend a webinar.
For more information, call us at (800) 421-6019.