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.