Special project of long-time Fortune 500 client

For more than 25 years, Verrill has served as outside employee benefits counsel to a large, publicly traded insurance company. We helped this client develop a pioneering emergency savings vehicle within its 401(k) plan, which goes beyond the more limited distribution opportunity made available recently under SECURE 2.0. This initiative was designed to alleviate employee financial stress, which was significantly heightened during the COVID-19 pandemic, and mitigate retirement plan leakage. To help this client achieve its goals, we sought an advisory opinion from the U.S. Department of Labor and coordinated the client’s 401k) plan recordkeeper to implement the special feature. The significance of this endeavor is underscored by support from the American Benefits Council, advocating for broader adoption of similar initiatives.