Also read: Labor, business urge Congress to act on MEPs

Some of the biggest worries for the industry revolve around the possibility Congress will move to cut some of the tax deferrals and other benefits associated with retirement plans, as a means of boosting federal coffers.

A new Congress in January could take up tax reforms that might lead to just that, as well as comprehensive pension reforms of the sort proposed by Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch.

If the GOP takes control of the Senate, Hatch would become chairman of the powerful Senate Finance committee.

The ASPPA's director of retirement policy, Judy Miller, said the Hatch plan could be taken up in the 114th Congress after having languished in Congress over the past couple of years.

There are, in fact, at least four pieces of proposed legislation all aimed at addressing shortcomings in the existing system.

According to a 2012 Government Accountability Office report, only 14 percent of businesses with 100 or fewer employees sponsor a retirement plan.

Hatch's Secure Annuities for Employee Retirement Act would, among other things, allow businesses to pool participants under one multiple employer plan, in both defined benefit and defined contribution form. The plan sponsor – and, as a consequence, the primary fiduciary – would not be the employer group, but the financial services firm that designs the plan.

A qualified multiple employer plan (not to be confused with an MEP) could help resolve many of the complications that deter smaller businesses from offering retirement plans.

Whatever might happen next year, Graff said, retirement is an issue that has everyone's attention.

"The fact is that the president of the United States is talking about our issues," Graff said, referring to President Obama's MyRA proposal. "Our issues are still at center stage."

Craig Hoffman, the director of regulatory affairs for the organization, said he expected the DOL to move forward with its fiduciary standard rule sometime early next year.

Plan advisors, of course, already live under the more strenuous fiduciary standard. The DOL is considering subjecting broker-dealers to the standard as a way of protecting investors. The financial services industry says the DOL's efforts are a waste of effort, because the fraction of brokers who take advantage of clients is small.

Regardless, many expect the new fiduciary standard regulation to be finalized before the Obama administration leaves the White House.

Also read: Perez: DOL wants to get granular on fiduciary rule

"There has been speculation on how long a delay can be in order to actually get this done before the end of the Obama administration," Hoffman said, "(But) it's certainly something that the DOL is committed to under its current leadership."

In another session, employee benefits attorney Ilene Ferenczy said the IRS's "latest area of interest" includes an emphasis on "internal controls" — the procedures, polices, computer programs and so forth of the plan administrator and plan sponsor.

The IRS, she said, figures that plans with proper internal controls are better managed and, thus, should see fewer sanctionable errors.