ERISA Compliance Checklist for 2026: Deadlines and Duties

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) sets minimum standards for private-sector employee benefit plans, retirement plans, group health, dental, vision, disability, and most other welfare benefits. If your company offers any of these, you carry ERISA obligations, and the people administering the plan carry personal fiduciary exposure for getting it wrong. This checklist covers what plan sponsors actually need to do, organized the way the work actually happens.

What This Guide Covers

• Who is subject to ERISA
• When someone joins the plan
• Quarterly obligations
• Annual obligations and Form 5500
• Ongoing fiduciary duties
• The insurance side of ERISA compliance
• Frequently asked questions

Who Is Subject to ERISA?

ERISA covers private-sector employers of any size that maintain retirement plans or welfare benefit plans, including health, dental, vision, life, and disability coverage. It does not cover plans maintained by governmental entities, most church plans, or plans maintained outside the United States primarily for nonresident aliens. There is no small-employer exemption from ERISA itself: a five-person company with group health insurance has ERISA obligations, though small fully insured welfare plans with fewer than 100 participants are exempt from the Form 5500 filing requirement specifically.

When Someone Joins the Plan

• Summary Plan Description (SPD). Provide to each new participant within 90 days of becoming covered. The SPD explains what the plan provides, how it works, and how to file a claim, in language participants can understand.
• Automatic enrollment and fee notices where applicable for retirement plans, before the participant's first contribution.

Quarterly Obligations

• Benefit statements for participant-directed retirement plans. Participants who direct their own investments must receive statements quarterly; non-directed plans require them annually.
• Deposit employee contributions promptly. Late remittance of employee 401(k) deferrals is one of the most common DOL findings. Small plans have a 7-business-day safe harbor; the standard for everyone is "as soon as administratively feasible."

Annual Obligations

• File Form 5500. Due the last day of the seventh month after the plan year ends, July 31 for calendar-year plans, with an extension to October 15 available via Form 5558. Small fully insured welfare plans under 100 participants are exempt; most retirement plans are not. Filing details are maintained by the Department of Labor.
• Distribute the Summary Annual Report (SAR). Due to participants within nine months of plan year end, or two months after an extended Form 5500 filing.
• Annual fee disclosures. Participant-directed plans must deliver 404(a)(5) fee and investment disclosures annually, and plan sponsors must collect and evaluate 408(b)(2) disclosures from service providers.
• Required minimum distributions. Under SECURE 2.0, RMDs now begin at age 73 (rising to 75 in 2033). Confirm your recordkeeper is initiating them for participants who reached RMD age, since the excise taxes for missed RMDs land on participants and the operational failure lands on the plan.
• Review the ERISA fidelity bond. Required by law for anyone who handles plan funds: at least 10 percent of plan assets handled, minimum $1,000, capped at $500,000 per plan ($1 million for plans holding employer securities). Plan assets grow; bonds get forgotten at old limits.
• Update plan documents. Distribute a Summary of Material Modifications within 210 days after the end of the plan year in which a change was adopted, and within 60 days for a material reduction in group health benefits. An updated SPD is required every 5 years if the plan has been amended, every 10 years regardless.

Ongoing Fiduciary Duties

The deadlines above are the mechanical part. The part that generates lawsuits is fiduciary conduct, which applies continuously:

• Act with prudence and loyalty. Every plan decision must be made solely in the interest of participants, with the care a prudent expert would use.
• Monitor investments and fees. Excessive-fee litigation has reached plans of every size, and the defense that wins is documented, periodic review, not good intentions.
• Monitor service providers. Hiring a TPA or recordkeeper transfers work, not duty. You remain responsible for prudently selecting and continuously monitoring them.
• Follow the plan document. Administering the plan inconsistently with its own terms is a breach, even when the deviation favors a participant.
• Maintain a claims and appeals procedure and provide written explanations whenever a claim is denied.
• Document everything. Committee minutes, provider reviews, and fee benchmarking are what stand between a fiduciary and personal liability when a decision is challenged years later.

The Insurance Side of ERISA Compliance

Two coverages exist specifically because of the duties above, and they are not interchangeable:

• The ERISA fidelity bond is legally required and protects the plan against theft by people handling plan funds. It does not protect you.
• Fiduciary liability insurance is voluntary and protects the business and the individual fiduciaries, including their personal assets, against mismanagement claims: administration errors, imprudent investments, failure to monitor providers. We break down the full distinction in our guide to what fiduciary liability insurance covers.

A third coverage, employee benefits liability, picks up administrative slip-ups like failing to enroll an employee in coverage. Most plan sponsors should carry the bond because they must, fiduciary liability because their personal assets are exposed without it, and EBL as the inexpensive backstop for clerical errors.

Get the Coverage Reviewed Alongside the Compliance

Pro Insurance Group is an independent commercial insurance brokerage headquartered in Elgin, Illinois, serving businesses across Illinois and more than 40 states. We review fidelity bond limits against current plan assets, structure fiduciary liability and EBL coverage around how your plans actually operate, and shop it all across multiple carriers. Your TPA handles the filings; we make sure the people responsible for the plan are not personally exposed while doing it.

Frequently Asked Questions