Hard deadlineAll sponsors
SECURE / SECURE 2.0 formal amendment deadline
The IRS “good faith” compliance grace period ends this year; most plans must formally adopt required document amendments.
Counsel alerts, Deadline: Dec 31, 2026
You’re reading the September 7, 2026 issue.
Latest issue: October 21, 2026Prime Factor
Trends and intelligence from across the retirement plan industry.
Lead story
Demand-side trendPlays to PPI’s actuarial strength
The quiet DB revival is a cash-balance story, and it favors firms with real actuarial depth
WSJ and others reported this week on a small but real revival of corporate pensions, driven almost entirely by cash balance plan design rather than a return to traditional final-average-pay pensions.
October Three’s 2026 report backs it with hard numbers: cash balance plans now outnumber traditional DB plans nearly 2-to-1, up roughly 70% since 2015 while traditional DB fell more than 50% over the same period. IBM’s 2023 relaunch and new cash-balance provisions at Delta and Southwest (won through union negotiations) are the visible edge of it.
Cash balance work is actuarially intensive administration (not commodity 401(k) recordkeeping), which is exactly the kind of work PPI’s actuarial-capable offices (PPNW and similar) are built for.
- WSJ: “Pensions Were on the Brink of Extinction. Now Companies Are Bringing Them Back.” Anne Tergesen, Sep 6, 2026
- Data: October Three 2026 Cash Balance Plan Report
Compliance & regulatory
The first two below are settled and dated. The last two are unsettled: nothing to act on yet, but both could reshape fiduciary risk into 2027.
OperationalPayroll systems
Mandatory Roth catch-up for high earners now in effect
Participants 50+ earning over ~$150,000 must have catch-up contributions sourced as Roth, or plans lose catch-up eligibility for them entirely.
Quarles & Brady, Effective Jan 1, 2026
Litigation riskPending
Anderson v. Intel: SCOTUS to set ERISA pleading standard
Could reset the bar for fiduciary-breach lawsuits industry-wide, depending on how “meaningful benchmark” is defined.
DLA Piper, Watch: cert granted Jan 16, 2026
RulemakingPending
DOL proposes safe harbor for alternative assets in 401(k) menus
A six-factor safe harbor for selecting alternative-asset investment options; comment period closed, final rule targeted by year-end.
Troutman Pepper, Watch: proposed Mar 30, 2026
Channel news
Advisors, recordkeepers, and CPAs are the pipe PPI’s business runs through: tracking who controls referral relationships.
Vertical integration threat
Gusto completes ~$600M acquisition of Guideline
A payroll provider folded a small-business 401(k) recordkeeper directly into its platform as “Gusto 401(k).”
CPA Practice Advisor, Nov 6, 2025
Referral channelConsolidating
RIA aggregators keep absorbing DC-plan advisory practices
CAPTRUST, KKR-backed Beacon Pointe, and others continue acquiring the retirement-advisory practices PPI depends on for referrals.
Dakota, Feb 2026
Succession precedentReferral base
CPA firms hit their own succession cliff
~75% of CPAs are at or near retirement eligibility, the same dynamic behind PPI’s NJ situation, now playing out in the referral base.
Peony / KPMG Corporate Finance, 2026