Stakeholders have an opportunity to comment on disclosure provisions of the sweeping SECURE 2.0 legislation. The Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration issued a lengthy request for information on Aug. 11 that covers nine sections of the bill that Congress passed last December.

"(The agency) believes that it will be helpful to initiate several of these actions, given their commonality in affecting reporting of information to the department and the disclosure of information to retirement plan participants and beneficiaries," the department wrote.

SECURE 2.0, which features more than 90 provisions, directs the EBSA to enact and oversee a number of initiatives, including several disclosure-related items. It seeks feedback on these provisions:

• Pooled employer plans: Section 344 requires the department to study the pooled employer plan (PEP) industry and report to Congress.
• Emergency savings accounts: Section 127 permits defined-contribution plan sponsors to offer short-term emergency savings accounts.
• Performance benchmarks: Section 318 directs the Labor Department to update its regulations so an investment that uses a mix of asset classes can be benchmarked against a blend of broad-based securities market indices if the index blend reasonably matches the fund's asset allocation over time; the index blend is reset at least once a year; and the underlying indices are appropriate for the investment's component asset classes and otherwise meet the rule's conditions for index benchmarks.
• Fee disclosure improvements: Section 340 requires the department to review its fiduciary disclosure requirements in participant-directed individual account plan regulations and report to Congress.
• Unenrolled participants: Section 320 stipulates that employers no longer have to provide certain intermittent ERISA notices to unenrolled participants who have not elected to participate in a workplace retirement plan.
• Paper statements: Section 338 stipulates that a defined contribution plan must, unless a participant elects otherwise, provide a paper benefit statement at least annually and defined benefit plans to do the same every three years.
• Plan notices: Section 341 directs the Treasury and Labor Departments to amend regulations to permit a plan to consolidate certain required plan notices.
• Risk mitigation: Section 342 requires plans to provide participants and retirees with information to compare benefits offered and the lump sum. It also would explain how the lump sum was calculated, the ramifications of accepting a lump sum, such as the loss of certain federal protections, details about the election period and where to follow up with questions.
• Annual funding notices: Section 343 modifies the content requirements for defined benefit plan annual funding notices.

Related: SECURE 2.0: Small, medium businesses have 'limited understanding' of new law

The comment period in the Federal Register began on August 18 and will continue for 60 days, until October 10, 2023.