The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, which was signed into law on Friday, February 9, 2018, changes the rules related to hardship distributions from qualified defined contribution plans, effective for Plan Years starting after December 31, 2018, in three significant ways:
- The Act removes the requirement that Participants exhaust the ability to take any available loans under the plan before taking a hardship distribution.
- The Act allows Participants to take a hardship distribution from their elective deferral contribution accounts, qualified nonelective contributions (“QNECs”), and qualified matching contributions (“QMACs”), as well as from earnings on those contributions. Previously, hardship distributions could only be taken from elective deferral contributions only, and not from any earnings on deferrals.
- The Act repeals the rule prohibiting participants from making elective deferrals and other employee contributions for six months after taking a hardship distribution.
Employers that want to implement any or all of the above relaxations in the hardship distribution rules will almost certainly need to amend their plans. While I am generally not a fan of permitting hardship distributions in qualified plans, because they undermine the purpose of retirement savings and add administrative complexity, if your plan provides for hardship distributions you will probably want to incorporate these changes because they will simplify and streamline plan administration.
