The SPARK Institute has developed a new version of its Best Practices for 403(b) and Related Retirement Plans Remittance and Census Data Elements, which initially was released in June 2009.
The updated Best Practices will help employers and vendors communicate plan remittance and census data by defining file layouts for 403(b) and other retirement plans. The Best Practices can be used by all 403(b) plans, as well as 401(k), 401(a) and 457(b) plans.
"We developed this new version in response to member recommendations that its use not be limited to multivendor 403(b) plans, and requests for additional data elements to meet new regulatory requirements and service offerings," Goldbrum noted. "A working group from our 403(b) Plans Task Force spent over a year developing the new version, which incorporates more than 20 substantive changes, including the addition of new data fields, a list of contribution source codes, and clarification of several other issues," he said.
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Best Practices is available to anyone at no charge, including non-SPARK Institute members, and can be downloaded from The SPARK Institute website. It won't go into effect until Feb. 1, 2013.
"We are publishing this document now to provide all affected parties with eight months to prepare for the change. However, the Best Practices may be implemented prior to the effective date if agreed upon by both the sending and receiving parties," Goldbrum said.
The SPARK Institute represents the interests of a broad based cross section of retirement plan service providers and investment managers, including banks, mutual fund companies, insurance companies, third party administrators, trade clearing firms and benefits consultants.
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