Retirement plan amendments for recent laws due by December 31 

July 21, 2026

Sponsors of tax-favored retirement plans have until December 31, 2026, to adopt required and discretionary amendments related to several recent major laws. These amendments may be extensive for some sponsors, depending on the degree to which their plans are affected. The December 31 deadline also applies to any other discretionary amendments implemented during 2026 by sponsors with calendar-year plans. All amendment deadlines discussed in this article apply to both individually designed and preapproved plans. 

IRS Notice 2024-2 set December 31, 2026, as the deadline for sponsors of qualified and 403(b) plans to adopt required and discretionary plan amendments related to the following laws:

• The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (SECURE 1.0). Sponsors of 401(k) plans must update their plans this year for SECURE 1.0’s minimum participation requirements for long-term, part-time (LTPT) workers. Amendments are also due for plans that implemented any of SECURE 1.0’s optional provisions, including penalty-free qualified birth or adoption distributions from defined contribution plans and the increase in the auto-escalation cap under a qualified automatic contribution arrangement (QACA) to 15%. SECURE 1.0 also made mandatory changes to the rules for required minimum distributions (RMDs) but, as discussed in more detail below, amendments for these provisions aren’t due this year.
• The SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022. SECURE 2.0 modified SECURE 1.0’s LTPT worker participation rules for 401(k) plans and expanded the rules to 403(b) plans that are subject to ERISA. Sponsors of both types of plans must update their documents this year to reflect the rules with SECURE 2.0’s modifications. SECURE 2.0 includes a host of optional provisions as well, including, for example, matching employees’ student loan repayments, offering several new penalty-free distribution options, and increasing the small benefit cashout threshold to $7,000. A new higher catch-up contribution limit at ages 60-63 is also optional, but employers that are part of a controlled group should be aware that all plans in their controlled group must offer the higher limit if any plan does. SECURE 2.0 also made additional mandatory changes to the RMD requirements and added the new Roth catch-up contribution mandate for high-earning employees — but again, as discussed below, amendments for these provisions aren’t due this year.
• The Bipartisan American Miners Act of 2019 (Miners Act). The Miners Act includes one optional provision: the reduction to the permissible age for in-service distributions from qualified defined benefit and eligible governmental 457(b) plans to 59-1/2.
• Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. The CARES Act includes one required amendment for defined contribution plans: the waiver of RMDs that were due by April 1, 2020 (to retired participants who turned 70-1/2 in 2019); December 31, 2020 (to participants receiving ongoing RMDs); and April 1, 2021 (to participants who retired in 2020). (The waiver didn’t apply to defined benefit plans.) The CARES Act also included optional provisions that allowed defined contribution plans to offer participants affected by the COVID-19 pandemic penalty-free distribution options and certain plan loan relief.
• Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2020 (Disaster Relief Act). The Disaster Relief Act included optional provisions allowing defined contribution plans to offer participants affected by certain disasters penalty free distributions and plan loan relief, as well as the option to repay unused hardship distributions taken to buy or build a principal residence in a designated disaster area.

Later deadlines for certain plans. The December 31, 2026, deadline applies to most qualified and 403(b) plans, but later deadlines apply to collectively bargained and governmental plans, as well as to IRAs:

• Collectively bargained plans. Notice 2024-2 sets December 31, 2028, as the amendment deadline for plans maintained pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement that was ratified before December 29, 2022.
• Plans sponsored by governmental employers. Notice 2024-2 gives governmental sponsors of qualified, 403(b), and eligible 457(b) plans until December 31, 2029, to amend their plans.
• IRAs, SEPS, and SIMPLE plans. IRS Notice 2026-9 extends the deadline to December 31, 2027, for IRAs under IRC Section 408(a), (b), and (h) as well as Simplified Employee Pension (SEP) arrangements and Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees (SIMPLE) IRAs.

Plan year has no impact on deadline. The December 31 deadline applies to all plans regardless of whether a plan has a calendar year or noncalendar year plan year.

Anticutback relief. Sponsors receive anticutback relief if they timely adopt the required amendments and any optional amendments implemented before the applicable amendment deadline for the above laws, provided sponsors operate their plans in accordance with the new provision from the effective date of the change.

Sample plan language. Sponsors can find sample plan language in IRS’s Listing of Required Modifications (LRMs). The LRMs are meant to assist preapproved plan document providers in updating their plan documents for law changes, but sponsors of individually designed plans can also look to the LRMs for plan language that IRS has deemed compliant. In addition, IRS Notice 2020-51 includes sample plan language for the required CARES Act amendment waiving 2020 RMDs from defined contribution plans and IRAs.

Although sponsors generally must amend their plans for the above laws by the deadlines noted above, later deadlines apply for certain provisions of the laws that IRS has included on the Required Amendments (RA) List. The RA List is an annual list of tax law changes affecting qualified and 403(b), but not eligible 457(b) plans. When a change appears on the RA List, sponsors of affected plans generally have until the end of the second calendar year following publication of the list to adopt a conforming amendment. (Governmental sponsors may have an even later deadline based on the legislative calendar.) In general, a change in the qualified or 403(b) plan requirements won’t appear on an RA List until IRS has issued regulations or other guidance on the change, including any model amendment (if applicable). However, IRS retains the discretion to include a required change on an RA List in other circumstances.

SECURE acts’ RMD changes. The 2025 RA List in Notice 2025-60 includes SECURE 1.0’s increase in the RMD triggering age to 72 for participants born after July 1, 1949, and the elimination of lifetime “stretch” payments from defined contribution plans for most nonspouse beneficiaries. The list also includes IRS’s 2024 final regulations on these SECURE 1.0 RMD changes and certain SECURE 2.0 RMD changes. These final regulations became applicable in 2025. By including these items on the 2025 RA List, IRS has set December 31, 2027, as the deadline to amend qualified and 403(b) plans for these RMD provisions.

IRS plans to include the remaining SECURE 2.0 RMD provisions on a future RA List after the agency issues final regulations for those changes. (IRS issued proposed regulations for these changes in 2024.) For a discussion of which SECURE 2.0 RMD changes were included in the 2024 final regulations, and which ones will appear in the future final regulations, see IRS finalizes SECURE 1.0 RMD rule changes, proposes 2.0 changes (August 16, 2024).

Roth catch-up mandate for high earners. IRS anticipates including SECURE 2.0’s Roth catch-up contribution mandate for high-earning employees and the 2025 final regulations on that provision on the RA List for 2027, which will be the first year the final regulations on the Roth catch-up mandate apply. If so, the amendment deadline for the Roth catch-up mandate and final regulations will be December 31, 2029.

No extension for LTPT worker eligibility rules. IRS has not announced that the LTPT worker eligibility rules will appear on a future RA List, even though the agency hasn’t issued final regulations on these rules yet. (IRS has issued proposed regulations on the rules for 401(k) plans and Notice 2024-73 on the rules for 403(b) plans.) However, IRS has issued a sample plan amendment for this provision in the LRMs for cash or deferred arrangements. Absent any extension from IRS, sponsors should ensure their plans are updated to reflect the statutory changes to the rules by the end of this year.

Sponsors generally must amend their plans for changes on the 2024 RA List by December 31, 2026. The 2024 RA List includes the following changes:

• Changes requiring amendments due to unusual plan provisions. The 2024 RA list includes SECURE 2.0’s changes to the IRC Section 415 limits for employees of rural electric cooperatives and the Section 414 family attribution rules.
• Changes that relate to optional plan provisions previously adopted. The 2024 list includes a number of provisions from SECURE 1.0 and 2.0 and the CARES and Miners acts for which IRS previously issued guidance. IRS added these provisions to the 2024 RA List for sponsors who may have amended their plans for the statutory provision before IRS issued the guidance. Some sponsors may need to amend their plans again to comply with the guidance.
• Periodic updates not specifically mentioned on RA List. Each RA List automatically includes certain periodic updates, even though these items aren’t specifically referenced on that RA List. Examples of these updates include changes in cost-of-living adjustments, spot segment rates used to determine the 417(e)(3) applicable interest rate, and 417(e)(3) applicable mortality tables for the year in which such changes are effective. Most plans incorporate these items by reference, eliminating the need for amendments. But plans that don’t incorporate these items by reference must be amended by December 31, 2026, for updates that took effect in 2024.

Most discretionary amendments to reflect optional plan design changes must be adopted by the end of the plan year in which the change takes effect. Sponsors of calendar-year plans that made discretionary design changes unrelated to the above laws in 2026 generally must adopt conforming amendments by December 31. 

Some sponsors may have only a few required amendments due by the end of this year. However, for sponsors that have adopted any of the laws’ optional changes, the list of amendments due by year-end could be lengthy. Sponsors that haven’t already done so may want to consult with legal counsel to get started on the amendment process soon to allow adequate time for the necessary amendments to be identified, drafted, and reviewed. Sponsors using preapproved plan documents may want to reach out to their document providers to confirm they are drafting interim amendments to comply with the law changes.

• Notice 2026-9, Extension of SECURE 2.0 Act Amendment Deadline for IRAs (IRS, January 26, 2026)
• Notice 2025-60, 2025 Required Amendments List for Qualified and Section 403(b) Plans (IRS, December 4, 2025)
• Notice 2024-82, 2024 Required Amendments List for Qualified and Section 403(b) Plans (IRS, December 5, 2024)
• Notice 2024-2, Miscellaneous Changes Under the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (IRS, December 20, 2023)
• Notice 2020-51, Guidance on Waiver of 2020 Required Minimum Distributions (IRS, June 23, 2020)
• Required amendments list (IRS)
• Listing of Required Modifications (LRMs) (IRS)
• Amend or update a plan (IRS)

• IRS again delays applicability date for final RMD regulations (March 2, 2026)
• IRS extends IRA amendment deadline for SECURE acts and more (January 30, 2026)
• 2025 Required Amendments List includes SECURE acts’ RMD changes (December 8, 2025)
• IRS finalizes rules on Roth catch-up mandate for high earners (September 23, 2025)
• IRS’s 2024 Required Amendments List is chock-full of changes (December 18, 2024)
• IRS finalizes SECURE 1.0 RMD rule changes, proposes 2.0 changes (August 16, 2024)
• IRS proposes long-term, part-time work 401(k) eligibility rules (January 29, 2024)
• After empty RA list, IRS delays amendment deadlines for new laws (December 21, 2023)
• User’s guide to SECURE 2.0 (updated periodically)