On May 14, 2026, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued Notice 2026-34, which contains the 2026 Cumulative List of Changes in Plan Qualification Requirements for Defined Benefit Qualified Pre-approved Plans (2026 Cumulative List). The notice identifies recent changes in plan qualification requirements that the IRS will consider when reviewing defined benefit-qualified (DB-qualified) pre-approved plans for the fourth remedial amendment cycle (Cycle 4). The remedial amendment cycles that apply to qualified pre-approved plan documents refer to the recurring IRS-required plan document restatement cycles (originally intended to be six-year cycles, the timing of which is now as announced by the IRS).

DB-qualified pre-approved plan document providers seeking Cycle 4 IRS opinion letters for the updated pre-approved plans they will ultimately offer for adoption by plan sponsors may submit applications from August 1, 2026, through July 31, 2027. Applications must include a copy of the updated specimen plan document with the pertinent changes on the 2026 Cumulative List. If the IRS approves a provider’s submission, it will issue an opinion letter to the provider. (See the section below entitled, “What happens after pre-approved plan documents are submitted for IRS review?” for the approximate timing of the IRS review process and timing of next steps impacting plan sponsors.) Plan sponsors that adopt pre-approved plans generally may rely on the plans’ IRS opinion letters, in the same manner as if they were the sponsors’ own IRS favorable determination letters, for assurance that the form of the updated Cycle 4 pre-approved plan document satisfies the applicable qualification requirements, provided the sponsors adopt and use the document in accordance with the applicable reliance rules.

The 2026 Cumulative List reflects statutory and regulatory changes not previously taken into account in earlier remedial amendment cycles, including changes under the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (SECURE Act); the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (SECURE 2.0 Act); the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act); the Bipartisan American Miners Act of 2019 (Miners Act); and the Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2020 (Relief Act), as well as recent disaster relief legislation, final regulations, and various proposed regulations that may be relied on before final regulations are published. However, Notice 2026-34 does not extend the deadline for adopting any required plan amendment.

In general, providers of DB-qualified pre-approved plans should limit DB Cycle 4 submission updates to items identified on the 2026 Cumulative List in Notice 2026-34. Some of those items are required, while others are optional or may not actually affect content typically included in plan documents. Providers generally should not include provisions reflecting legislation enacted or guidance issued after the date Notice 2026-34 was issued.

Changes that may affect Cycle 4 DB qualified pre-approved plan documents

DB-qualified pre-approved plans may need to reflect the following changes addressed in Notice 2026-34:

• Required minimum distributions (RMDs): Plan documents generally need to be updated to reflect changes to the required beginning date for RMDs enacted by section 114 of the SECURE Act, section 107 of the SECURE 2.0 Act and the final RMD regulations published July 19, 2024, including the increase from age 70½ to age 72 and then to age 73 for applicable participants.¹ Documents also may need to incorporate the transitional relief for certain 2023 RMDs under Notice 2023-54.
• Involuntary cashout limit: Plans that permit mandatory distributions of small benefits without participant consent may be amended to reflect the optional increase in the involuntary cashout threshold from $5,000 to $7,000 under section 304 of the SECURE 2.0 Act. For DB plans, this change affects the threshold at or below which the vested accrued benefit may be distributed without participant consent, and without being subject to the qualified joint and survivor annuity and spousal consent rules.
• In-service distributions from pension plans: The lowest age at which a DB plan can permit in-service distributions is now age 59½ rather than age 62, as permitted by section 104 of the Miners Act and reflected in Notice 2020-68.
• Use of forfeitures: DB plans may need to reflect proposed regulations updating the forfeiture rules to conform to current minimum funding requirements. The proposed rules would eliminate the earlier requirement that pension plan forfeitures be used as soon as possible to reduce employer contributions, because that outdated approach is inconsistent with the way DB plans’ minimum funding requirements are now determined. Instead, expected forfeitures are reflected through actuarial assumptions under the DB plan’s funding method, and differences between expected and actual forfeitures affect future minimum funding requirements.
• Electronic witnessing and spousal consent procedures: Plan document language and administrative provisions may now reflect proposed rules permitting remote witnessing of participant elections and spousal consents by a notary public or plan representative, as an alternative to in-person witnessing, as well as clarification regarding use of electronic media for these elections and consents, to the extent reliance on proposed regulations is permitted.²
• Nondiscrimination relief for closed or frozen plans: Plans may need to reflect section 205 of the SECURE Act, which provides permanent relief from the nondiscrimination and minimum participation requirements for certain closed or frozen DB plans. This includes relief allowing a closed plan to continue benefiting existing participants without failing the tax-qualification rules governing nondiscriminatory benefits and minimum participation, provided the statutory conditions are satisfied. In addition, section 205 of the SECURE Act permits nondiscrimination testing relief where a plan sponsor provides certain “make-whole” contributions to a defined contribution plan.
• Retroactive amendments that increase benefits: Plans may now reflect section 316 of the SECURE 2.0 Act, which permits a plan sponsor to elect to treat certain plan amendments that increase accrued benefits as of a retroactive effective date that falls within the immediately preceding plan year as having been adopted as of the last day of that plan year, provided the plan sponsor adopts the amendment by the due date for filing their tax return, including extensions, for the taxable year that includes the effective date of the amendment.
• Re-contribution of amounts returned on account of wrongful levy: Plan provisions may now reflect Internal Revenue Code changes permitting an individual to re-contribute to an eligible retirement plan amounts returned to them because of a wrongful IRS levy upon their eligible retirement plan benefits, with the re-contribution treated as a rollover contribution, subject to the applicable statutory conditions and timing rules.
• Rules relating to eligible rollover distributions from defined benefit plans: Final regulations under section 402(c) that were published on July 19, 2024, amend the eligible rollover distribution rules that are applicable to DB plans for distributions on or after January 1, 2025.
• Direct payments for eligible retired public safety officers: Governmental DB plans may reflect section 328 of the SECURE 2.0 Act, which expands the rules permitting such plans to make direct distributions to certain eligible retired public safety officers to pay for qualified health insurance premiums.
• Pandemic-related partial plan termination relief: To the extent relevant for plan qualification purposes or explanatory provisions, plans may reflect the temporary COVID-19-related relief under section 209 of the Relief Act, under which a plan was not treated as having a partial plan termination during the pandemic if the number of active participants covered by the plan on March 31, 2021, was at least 80% of the number covered on March 13, 2020.³
• Cash balance plans: Cash balance plans that provide for both pay credits to participants that increase with age or service and a variable interest crediting rate may need to reflect section 348 of the SECURE 2.0 Act and section H of Notice 2024-2 addressing the interest crediting and market rate of return rules, including clarification that such a cash balance plan does not fail to satisfy the accrued benefit requirements merely because the variable interest crediting rate falls below a specified floor.
• Minimum present value requirements under Code section 417(e): DB plans subject to the minimum present value rules may need to incorporate final regulations affecting the applicable interest rates, applicable mortality tables, and related assumptions used to determine the minimum present value of accrued benefits for purposes of lump sum payments and certain other accelerated forms of payment, including rules regarding the treatment of preretirement mortality discounts and Social Security level income options.
• Ownership attribution rules affecting controlled group and affiliated service group status: Plan document language may need to reflect Section 315 of the SECURE 2.0 Act, which eliminated automatic attribution of ownership between spouses with separate businesses in community property states and modified the ownership attribution rules relative to ownership attribution between parents and minor children for purposes of the controlled group and affiliated service group rules affecting qualified retirement plans, as well as final regulations that affect affiliated groups of corporations that file consolidated federal income tax returns that extended the partnership and trust attribution rules relevant to determining whether a parent-subsidiary controlled group exists under the related employer rules. These determinations can affect plan qualification requirements including satisfaction of the required coverage, nondiscrimination, and Internal Revenue Code Section 415 limit testing.
• Domestic relations orders: Plans may need to reflect section 339 of the SECURE 2.0 Act, which expands the definition of a domestic relations order to include certain orders issued under the domestic relations law of an Indian tribal government or tribal court, for purposes of the plan’s qualified domestic relations order administration.
• Rural electric cooperative plans: Eligible rural electric cooperative plans may need to reflect the special Internal Revenue Code Section 415(b) limit changes enacted by section 119 of the SECURE 2.0 Act, which eliminated the compensation-based limit for participants in such plans who are non-highly compensated employees.
• Qualified transfers of excess pension assets under Code Section 420: DB plans permitting a qualified transfer of excess pension assets to a retiree medical account or life insurance account within the plan in accordance with Internal Revenue Code Section 420 may need to reflect the changes made by section 606 of the SECURE 2.0 Act, including the extended period through December 31, 2032, for doing so and the new de minimis transfer rule.
• CSEC plans: Cooperative and small employer charity pension plans (CSEC plans) may need to reflect CARES Act changes expanding the definition of a CSEC plan to include a DB plan that, as of January 1, 2000, was maintained by a tax-exempt employer that met specific characteristics and clarifying that such plans are not permitted to include the benefit restriction rules under Internal Revenue Code Section 436.
• Disaster-relief and coronavirus-related distributions: To the extent a particular specimen DB-qualified pre-approved plan permits in-service distributions and loans to plan participants, the plan document may reflect statutory disaster-related relief provisions and related guidance regarding the use of retirement plan funds by plan participants affected by such disasters, including retirement plan distributions, recontributions, and participant loans, including CARES Act provisions, SECURE 2.0 disaster-relief provisions, and Notice 2020-50.

Certain retirement plan IRS amendment deadlines are unchanged

The Cycle 4 Cumulative List governs what the IRS will review in connection with Opinion Letter application submissions by DB-qualified pre-approved plan providers, but it does not change separate operational or plan amendment compliance deadlines already in effect. The deadlines for required and discretionary amendments under the SECURE Act, the SECURE 2.0 Act, Miners Act, CARES Act, and Relief Act are provided in IRS Notice 2024-2. Plan amendments to comply with these law changes must generally be adopted by December 31, 2026, for qualified plans that are not governmental or collectively bargained, as well as for 403(b) plans not maintained by a public school. Later amendment adoption deadlines apply for collectively bargained plans and governmental plans. A summary of all the plan amendment deadlines for these law changes can be found here.

What happens after pre-approved retirement plan documents are submitted for IRS review?

After the Cycle 4 opinion letter application submission period closes on July 31, 2027, the IRS will review submitted DB-qualified pre-approved plans for the required and optional changes on the 2026 Cumulative List and issue opinion letters to providers. Historically, the IRS pre-approved plan opinion letter application review process has taken roughly two years from the application submission deadline (so, for DB Cycle 4 will conclude by approximately July 31, 2029, after which the IRS will release the opinion letters). Near the IRS’s release of the opinion letters, it will announce the restatement window, the close of which will be the deadline for plan sponsors to adopt a newly approved Cycle 4 DB-qualified pre-approved plan document restatement. The deadline provides an approximately two-year restatement window typically beginning about a month from the date of the opinion letters (e.g., although not definite, the DB Cycle 4 restatement window could potentially begin around September 1, 2029, and end August 31, 2031, marking the restatement adoption deadline). For comparison, the DB Cycle 3 IRS opinion letters were dated February 28, 2023, followed by a two-year restatement window from April 1, 2023, to March 31, 2025, the end date being the deadline for plan sponsors to adopt their Cycle 3 DB pre-approved plan document.

Please contact your Milliman consultant to determine how these provisions may impact your plan(s).

¹ Section 107 of the SECURE 2.0 Act includes a provision increasing the age with respect to which the required beginning date for RMDs is determined to age 75. This increase will not affect the timing of RMDs until after the end of Cycle 4 for DB-qualified pre-approved plans. Accordingly, the IRS will not review plan documents submitted for Cycle 4 for that provision.

² Notice 2026-34 clarifies that the IRS expects that most plans will not need to reflect these proposed regulations relating to the witnessing of spousal consent, as most plans will not include language that contradicts these proposed regulations.

³ Notice 2026-34 clarifies that the IRS expects that most plans will not need to be amended to reflect section 209 of the Relief Act, as most plans will not include language contradicting it.