IRS Extends Secure 2.0 Act Amendment Deadline for IRAs

Other updates "from the Secure Act, Secure 2.0, and even the now old CARES Act for Covid relief provisions may still need to be updated in the custodial documents," Slott added.

Operational Compliance

"Although the formal document amendment deadline has been extended, operational compliance with Secure 2.0 remains required as changes take effect," Appleby explained.

"In practice, this means administering accounts in accordance with current law, for example, applying updated RMD ages, catch-up contribution rules, and other operational provisions, even if the written governing instrument has not yet been amended," Appleby said.

"Advisors should ensure that clients and service providers understand that the extension does not relax the requirement to administer plans in conformity with the law during the interim period," Appleby added.

The extension "does not delay any due dates for operational compliance," J. Mark Iwry, former senior advisor to the U.S. Treasury secretary for national retirement policy, who's now a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, agreed in a separate email Monday. "IRAs still need to comply with changes in the way the IRA is operated beginning on whatever effective date the relevant law specified for a particular provision."

For instance: Say an IRA custodian wants to let its IRA customers take advantage of the permission in Secure and Secure 2.0 to change the required beginning date for RMDs from age 70 ½ to age 72 and then, as set out in Secure 2.0, to age 73, Iwry said.

"The custodian wants to change the way it operates so as to make that change effective as soon as the law allows, but doesn't get around to amending the IRA document to update it to reflect this change until a later year," Iwry explained. "So in the meanwhile, the plan document still says RMDs must start at age 70 ½ even though the custodian is operating its IRAs by permitting owners to wait on starting their RMDs until age 73."

The relief, Appleby said, affects a broad range of retirement products.

"From a practical standpoint, advisors may wish to encourage custodians and plan sponsors to identify which IRA, SEP, and SIMPLE IRA documents will ultimately require amendment and to monitor the release of IRS model language," she wrote.

Deadline Could Be Extended Again

When Secure 2.0 was enacted at the end of 2022, "Congress originally gave custodians until Dec. 31, 2025 to make retroactive Secure 2.0 amendments," Slott said. Lawmakers also extended the deadline for retroactive amendments relating to the original Secure Act and the CARES Act to the same date.

In Notice 2024-2, he said, the IRS "extended the deadline for all of these law changes another year — to Dec. 31, 2026."

Treasury and IRS state in the notice released Monday that they are extending the deadline again because they're "still developing model language that may be used by IRA trustees, custodians and issuers to amend an IRA for compliance with the Acts."

The forthcoming guidance will cover:

• the written governing instrument for an IRA that is an individual retirement account;
• the contract issued by an insurance company with respect to an IRA that is an individual retirement annuity;
• an employer's SEP arrangement under section 408(k); and
• an employer's SIMPLE IRA plan.

Notice 2026-9 "leaves open the possibility that the deadline could be extended further if future guidance prescribes a later date," according to Appleby.