Title 29 — LaborRelease 119-73
§1024 Filing with Secretary and furnishing information to participants and certain employers
Title 29 › Chapter CHAPTER 18— - EMPLOYEE RETIREMENT INCOME SECURITY PROGRAM › Subchapter SUBCHAPTER I— - PROTECTION OF EMPLOYEE BENEFIT RIGHTS › Subtitle Subtitle B— - Regulatory Provisions › Part part 1— - reporting and disclosure › § 1024
Summary
Plan administrators must file an annual report with the Secretary of Labor within 210 days after the plan year ends (or later if rules allow). The Secretary will put copies in the Labor Department’s public reading room. The Secretary can make simpler reports for small pension plans that have fewer than 100 participants, or for certain plans with fewer than 1,000 participants if no single employer covers 100 or more people. The Secretary can still ask for extra information, revoke simplified filing rules, exempt or simplify reporting for welfare plans, or reject filings that are incomplete or have a serious accountant/actuary qualification. If a rejected filing is not fixed within 45 days, the Secretary may hire an independent auditor or actuary for participants, sue to enforce the rules, or take other enforcement steps. Administrators must give the Secretary requested plan documents, like the latest summary plan description and the trust or contract that runs the plan. Administrators must give each participant and each beneficiary getting benefits a copy of the summary plan description and any changes within 90 days after joining or first getting benefits, or, if later, within 120 days after the plan becomes covered by these rules. They must let participants inspect the updated summary, the latest annual report, and plan documents at the administrator’s main office and other needed locations. Within 210 days after the plan fiscal year ends, administrators must give each participant and beneficiary the annual report summaries and schedules that fairly reflect the report. On written request, they must provide copies of the summary, annual report, terminal report, and plan documents and may charge a reasonable fee (the Secretary may set a maximum). Basic identification and actuarial data must be filed electronically so it can be shown on the internet; the Secretary must display it within 90 days after filing and it may also appear on the sponsor’s internal website. For multiemployer plans, within 30 days after the annual report due date administrators must give unions and contributing employers a report with contribution and benefit details, number of contributing employers, employers giving more than 5 percent of contributions, counts of participants with no employer contributions for the plan year and the two prior years, funding status and corrective actions, withdrawal information, merger valuations, certain funding choices, and a notice about requesting one copy of the annual report or related documents in any 12‑month period (with a reasonable copying charge). There are also rules to coordinate filings with the Treasury Department.
Full Legal Text
Title 29, §1024
Labor — Source: USLM XML via OLRC
(a)(1)The administrator of any employee benefit plan subject to this part shall file with the Secretary the annual report for a plan year within 210 days after the close of such year (or within such time as may be required by regulations promulgated by the Secretary in order to reduce duplicative filing). The Secretary shall make copies of such annual reports available for inspection in the public document room of the Department of Labor.
(2)(A)With respect to annual reports required to be filed with the Secretary under this part, the Secretary may by regulation prescribe simplified annual reports for any pension plan that—
(i)covers fewer than 100 participants; or
(ii)is a plan described in section 1060(a) of this title that covers fewer than 1,000 participants, but only if no single employer in the plan has 100 or more participants covered by the plan.
(B)Nothing contained in this paragraph shall preclude the Secretary from requiring any information or data from any such plan to which this part applies where he finds such data or information is necessary to carry out the purposes of this subchapter nor shall the Secretary be precluded from revoking provisions for simplified reports for any such plan if he finds it necessary to do so in order to carry out the objectives of this subchapter.
(3)The Secretary may by regulation exempt any welfare benefit plan from all or part of the reporting and disclosure requirements of this subchapter, or may provide for simplified reporting and disclosure if he finds that such requirements are inappropriate as applied to welfare benefit plans.
(4)The Secretary may reject any filing under this section—
(A)if he determines that such filing is incomplete for purposes of this part; or
(B)if he determines that there is any material qualification by an accountant or actuary contained in an opinion submitted pursuant to section 1023(a)(3)(A) or section 1023(a)(4)(B) of this title.
(5)If the Secretary rejects a filing of a report under paragraph (4) and if a revised filing satisfactory to the Secretary is not submitted within 45 days after the Secretary makes his determination under paragraph (4) to reject the filing, and if the Secretary deems it in the best interest of the participants, he may take any one or more of the following actions—
(A)retain an independent qualified public accountant (as defined in section 1023(a)(3)(D) of this title) on behalf of the participants to perform an audit,
(B)retain an enrolled actuary (as defined in section 1023(a)(4)(C) of this title) on behalf of the plan participants, to prepare an actuarial statement,
(C)bring a civil action for such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate to enforce the provisions of this part, or
(D)take any other action authorized by this subchapter.
(6)The administrator of any employee benefit plan subject to this part shall furnish to the Secretary, upon request, any documents relating to the employee benefit plan, including but not limited to, the latest summary plan description (including any summaries of plan changes not contained in the summary plan description), and the bargaining agreement, trust agreement, contract, or other instrument under which the plan is established or operated.
(b)Publication of the summary plan descriptions and annual reports shall be made to participants and beneficiaries of the particular plan as follows:
(1)The administrator shall furnish to each participant, and each beneficiary receiving benefits under the plan, a copy of the summary plan description, and all modifications and changes referred to in section 1022(a) of this title—
(A)within 90 days after he becomes a participant, or (in the case of a beneficiary) within 90 days after he first receives benefits, or
(B)if later, within 120 days after the plan becomes subject to this part.
(2)The administrator shall make copies of the latest updated summary plan description and the latest annual report and the bargaining agreement, trust agreement, contract, or other instruments under which the plan was established or is operated available for examination by any plan participant or beneficiary in the principal office of the administrator and in such other places as may be necessary to make available all pertinent information to all participants (including such places as the Secretary may prescribe by regulations).
(3)Within 210 days after the close of the fiscal year of the plan, the administrator (other than an administrator of a defined benefit plan to which the requirements of section 1021(f) of this title applies) 11 So in original. Probably should be “apply)”. shall furnish to each participant, and to each beneficiary receiving benefits under the plan, a copy of the statements and schedules, for such fiscal year, described in subparagraphs (A) and (B) of section 1023(b)(3) of this title and such other material (including the percentage determined under section 1023(d)(11) of this title) as is necessary to fairly summarize the latest annual report.
(4)The administrator shall, upon written request of any participant or beneficiary, furnish a copy of the latest updated summary,22 So in original. Comma probably should not appear. plan description, and the latest annual report, any terminal report, the bargaining agreement, trust agreement, contract, or other instruments under which the plan is established or operated. The administrator may make a reasonable charge to cover the cost of furnishing such complete copies. The Secretary may by regulation prescribe the maximum amount which will constitute a reasonable charge under the preceding sentence.
(5)Identification and basic plan information and actuarial information included in the annual report for any plan year shall be filed with the Secretary in an electronic format which accommodates display on the Internet, in accordance with regulations which shall be prescribed by the Secretary. The Secretary shall provide for display of such information included in the annual report, within 90 days after the date of the filing of the annual report, on an Internet website maintained by the Secretary and other appropriate media. Such information shall also be displayed on any Intranet website maintained by the plan sponsor (or by the plan administrator on behalf of the plan sponsor) for the purpose of communicating with employees and not the public, in accordance with regulations which shall be prescribed by the Secretary.
(c)The Secretary may by regulation require that the administrator of any employee benefit plan furnish to each participant and to each beneficiary receiving benefits under the plan a statement of the rights of participants and beneficiaries under this subchapter.
(d)(1)With respect to a multiemployer plan subject to this section, within 30 days after the due date under subsection (a)(1) for the filing of the annual report for the fiscal year of the plan, the administrators shall furnish to each employee organization and to each employer with an obligation to contribute to the plan a report that contains—
(A)a description of the contribution schedules and benefit formulas under the plan, and any modification to such schedules and formulas, during such plan year;
(B)the number of employers obligated to contribute to the plan;
(C)a list of the employers that contributed more than 5 percent of the total contributions to the plan during such plan year;
(D)the number of participants under the plan on whose behalf no contributions were made by an employer as an employer of the participant for such plan year and for each of the 2 preceding plan years;
(E)whether the plan was in critical or endangered status under section 1085 of this title for such plan year and, if so, include—
(i)a list of the actions taken by the plan to improve its funding status; and
(ii)a statement describing how a person may obtain a copy of the plan’s funding improvement or rehabilitation plan, as applicable, adopted under section 1085 of this title and the actuarial and financial data that demonstrate any action taken by the plan toward fiscal improvement;
(F)the number of employers that withdrew from the plan during the preceding plan year and the aggregate amount of withdrawal liability assessed, or estimated to be assessed, against such withdrawn employers, as reported on the annual report for the plan year to which the report under this subsection relates;
(G)in the case of a multiemployer plan that has merged with another plan or to which assets and liabilities have been transferred, the actuarial valuation of the assets and liabilities of each affected plan during the year preceding the effective date of the merger or transfer, based upon the most recent data available as of the day before the first day of the plan year, or other valuation method performed under standards and procedures as the Secretary may prescribe by regulation;
(H)a description as to whether the plan—
(i)sought or received an amortization extension under section 1084(d) of this title or section 431(d) of title 26 for such plan year; or
(ii)used the shortfall funding method (as such term is used in section 1085 of this title) for such plan year; and
(I)notification of the right under this section of the recipient to a copy of the annual report filed with the Secretary under subsection (a), summary plan description, summary of any material modification of the plan, upon written request, but that—
(i)in no case shall a recipient be entitled to receive more than one copy of any such document described during any one 12-month period; and
(ii)the administrator may make a reasonable charge to cover copying, mailing, and other costs of furnishing copies of information pursuant to this subparagraph.
(2)Nothing in this subsection waives any other provision under this subchapter requiring plan administrators to provide, upon request, information to employers that have an obligation to contribute under the plan.
(e)For regulations respecting coordination of reports to the Secretaries of Labor and the Treasury, see section 1204 of this title.
Legislative History
Notes & Related Subsidiaries
Editorial Notes
Amendments
2019—Subsec. (a)(2)(A). Pub. L. 116–94 added subpar. (A) and struck out former subpar. (A) which read as follows: “With respect to annual reports required to be filed with the Secretary under this part, he may by regulation prescribe simplified annual reports for any pension plan which covers less than 100 participants.” 2008—Subsec. (b)(3). Pub. L. 110–458, § 105(c)(1)(A)(ii), which directed substitution of “the administrator” for “the administrators” in par. (3), could not be executed because the words “the administrators” did not appear. Pub. L. 110–458, § 105(c)(1)(A)(i), substituted “section 1021(f)” for “section 1023(f)”. Subsec. (d)(1)(E)(ii). Pub. L. 110–458, § 105(c)(1)(B), inserted “funding” after “plan’s”. 2006—Pub. L. 109–280, § 503(d)(1), substituted “participants and certain employers” for “participants” in section catchline. Subsec. (b)(3). Pub. L. 109–280, § 503(c)(1), which directed amendment of par. (3) by inserting “(other than an administrator of a defined benefit plan to which the requirements of section 1023(f) of this title applies)” after “the administrators”, was executed by making the insertion after “the administrator”, to reflect the probable intent of Congress. Subsec. (b)(5). Pub. L. 109–280, § 504(a), added par. (5). Subsecs. (d), (e). Pub. L. 109–280, § 503(d)(2), (3), added subsec. (d) and redesignated former subsec. (d) as (e). 1997—Subsec. (a)(1). Pub. L. 105–34, § 1503(c)(1), amended par. (1) generally, substituting present provisions for provisions requiring filing of annual report, plan description, summary plan description, as well as modifications and changes in plan descriptions. Subsec. (a)(6). Pub. L. 105–34, § 1503(c)(2)(A), added par. (6). Subsec. (b)(1). Pub. L. 105–34, § 1503(d)(1), substituted “section 1022(a) of this title” for “section 1022(a)(1) of this title” wherever appearing. Subsec. (b)(2). Pub. L. 105–34, § 1503(d)(2), substituted “the latest updated summary plan description and” for “the plan description and”. Subsec. (b)(4). Pub. L. 105–34, § 1503(d)(3), struck out “plan description” before “, plan description, and the latest annual report”. 1996—Subsec. (b)(1). Pub. L. 104–204 made technical amendment to references in original act which appear in text as references to section 1191b of this title. Pub. L. 104–191, in closing provisions, substituted “1022(a)(1) of this title (other than a material reduction in covered services or benefits provided in the case of a group health plan (as defined in section 1191b(a)(1) of this title)),” for “1022(a)(1) of this title,” and inserted at end “If there is a modification or change described in section 1022(a)(1) of this title that is a material reduction in covered services or benefits provided under a group health plan (as defined in section 1191b(a)(1) of this title), a summary description of such modification or change shall be furnished to participants and beneficiaries not later than 60 days after the date of the adoption of the modification or change. In the alternative, the plan sponsors may provide such description at regular intervals of not more than 90 days. The Secretary shall issue
Regulations
within 180 days after August 21, 1996, providing alternative mechanisms to delivery by mail through which group health plans (as so defined) may notify participants and beneficiaries of material reductions in covered services or benefits.” 1989—Subsec. (a)(5)(B). Pub. L. 101–239, § 7894(b)(3), substituted a comma for period at end. Subsec. (b)(1). Pub. L. 101–239, § 7894(b)(4), struck out comma after “summary”. 1987—Subsec. (b)(3). Pub. L. 100–203 inserted “(including the percentage determined under section 1023(d)(11) of this title)” after “material”. 1986—Subsec. (a)(2)(A). Pub. L. 99–272 struck out provision permitting the Secretary to waive or modify the requirements of section 1023(d)(6) of this title if he found that the interests of the plan participants were not harmed and the expense of compliance was not justified by the needs of the participants, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, and the Department of Labor for some portion or all of the information otherwise required under section 1023(d)(6) of this title.
Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries
Effective Date
of 2019 AmendmentAmendment by Pub. L. 116–94 applicable to plan years beginning after Dec. 31, 2020, see section 101(e) of Pub. L. 116–94, set out as a note under section 408 of Title 26, Internal Revenue Code.
Effective Date
of 2008 AmendmentAmendment by Pub. L. 110–458 effective as if included in the provisions of Pub. L. 109–280 to which the amendment relates, except as otherwise provided, see section 112 of Pub. L. 110–458, set out as a note under section 72 of Title 26, Internal Revenue Code.
Effective Date
of 2006 AmendmentAmendment by section 503(c)(1), (d) of Pub. L. 109–280 applicable to plan years beginning after Dec. 31, 2007, see section 503(f) of Pub. L. 109–280, set out as a note under section 1021 of this title. Pub. L. 109–280, title V, § 504(b), Aug. 17, 2006, 120 Stat. 945, provided that: “The amendment made by this section [amending this section] shall apply to plan years beginning after December 31, 2007.”
Effective Date
of 1996
Amendments
Amendment by Pub. L. 104–204 applicable with respect to group health plans for plan years beginning on or after Jan. 1, 1998, see section 603(c) of Pub. L. 104–204 set out as a note under section 1003 of this title. Amendment by Pub. L. 104–191 applicable with respect to group health plans for plan years beginning after June 30, 1997, except as otherwise provided, see section 101(g) of Pub. L. 104–191, set out as an
Effective Date
note under section 1181 of this title.
Effective Date
of 1989 AmendmentAmendment by Pub. L. 101–239 effective, except as otherwise provided, as if originally included in the provision of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, Pub. L. 93–406, to which such amendment relates, see section 7894(i) of Pub. L. 101–239, set out as a note under section 1002 of this title.
Effective Date
of 1987 AmendmentAmendment by Pub. L. 100–203 applicable with respect to reports required to be filed after Dec. 31, 1987, see section 9342(d)(1) of Pub. L. 100–203, set out as a note under section 1132 of this title.
Effective Date
of 1986 AmendmentAmendment by Pub. L. 99–272 effective Jan. 1, 1986, with certain exceptions, see section 11019 of Pub. L. 99–272, set out as a note under section 1341 of this title.
Regulations
Secretary authorized, effective Sept. 2, 1974, to promulgate
Regulations
wherever provisions of this subchapter call for the promulgation of
Regulations
, see section 1031 of this title. Model Notices and FormsFor provisions requiring the Secretary of Labor to publish a model form for providing the statements, schedules, and other material required to be provided under subsec. (d) of this section, see section 503(e) of Pub. L. 109–280, set out as a note under section 1021 of this title.
Reference
Citations & Metadata
Citation
29 U.S.C. § 1024
Title 29 — Labor
Last Updated
Apr 6, 2026
Release point: 119-73