Last August, federal regulations began to require plan administrators and service providers to provide participant-directed individual account plan participants and beneficiaries with a comparative chart on designated investment alternatives.

The regulations mandated that this information was to be distributed by August 30, 2012 and at least annually thereafter. In response to concerns that the timing requirements translate into a costly stand-alone midyear mailing that may go disregarded by participants and beneficiaries, the Employee Benefits Security Administration ("EBSA") has issued a Field Assistance Bulletin announcing that, for purposes of enforcement, plan administrators and service providers will be considered in compliance with the applicable regulation if they distribute the 2013 comparative chart within eighteen months of the distribution date of the 2012 chart. This will enable plan administrators to select an alternative distribution date that corresponds with open enrollment or other plan notification deadlines. Those plan administrators who have already furnished their 2013 comparative chart will have the opportunity to take advantage of the Field Assistance Bulletin's "re-set" feature regarding the timing of the distribution of their 2015 annual comparative chart, and EBSA is considering the possibility of revising the regulation's timing requirements to provide a flexible window within which plan administrators may issue the comparative chart moving forward. Read more.