IRS Announces Opinion Letters for Cycle 4 Qualified Pre-Approved Plans

The IRS announced this week that it will soon issue opinion letters for certain defined contribution qualified pre-approved plans.

In Announcement 2025-15, issued August 5, the agency stated that it plans to issue on August 31 letters for plans that were:

• updated for changes in plan-qualification requirements listed in the 2023 Cumulative List, a list of plan amendments required for plans relying on a safe harbor; and
• filed during the fourth remedial amendment cycle for pre-approved plans.

The IRS permits qualified plans to model themselves off a safe harbor “pre-approved plan” as a method of obtaining initial plan approval. According to the IRS, the “employer must not make any modifications to the plan and can rely on the opinion letter issued to the pre-approved plan as if it were its own determination letter.”

Plans had to make the required amendments and apply for a new letter in their “remedial cycle.” The fourth remedial amendment cycle for pre-approved DC plans began on February 1, 2023. The submission period began on February 1, 2024, and ended on January 31, 2025.

The notice also set September 30, 2028, as the deadline by which an employer intending to maintain a Cycle 4 DC qualified pre-approved plan must adopt that plan. If an adopting employer has a DC qualified pre-approved plan that is eligible for the remedial amendment cycle under Section 5 of Revenue Procedure 2023-37 and adopts a newly approved pre-approved plan before that date, the IRS will consider it to have adopted the plan within Cycle 4.

The IRS stated in the announcement that an adopting employer of a newly approved DC qualified pre-approved plan may apply for an individual determination letter during the period that begins on October 1 and ends on September 30, 2028.