IRS Provides Cycle 4 Update for DC Pre-approved Plans

On August 5, 2026, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced that it intended to begin issuing new opinion letters for certain defined contribution (DC) qualified pre-approved plans beginning August 31, 2026, or as soon as possible thereafter. The timing was announced in Announcement 2026-15, published in Internal Revenue Bulletin 2026-35.

The letters apply to DC qualified pre-approved plans that were updated to reflect changes in the plan qualification requirements identified in the 2023 Cumulative List (Notice 2024-3) and submitted to the IRS during the fourth remedial amendment cycle (Cycle 4) under Rev. Proc. 2023-37. Cycle 4 is the fourth recurring IRS review cycle for these documents, and the Cumulative List identifies the qualification changes covered by that review.

IRS opinion letters provide assurance to plan sponsors that the form of a pre-approved plan meets applicable plan qualification requirements for that restatement cycle. An opinion letter addresses the form of the plan document, not how the plan is operated. Providers of DC qualified pre-approved plans submitted applications for Cycle 4 opinion letters during the IRS submission period, which ran from February 1, 2024, through January 31, 2025. Providers may also apply outside that window.

What Does This Mean for Plan Sponsors?

Pre-approved plan documents are generally created and maintained by financial institutions, practitioners, and other document providers. These arrangements, often still referred to as prototype plans, allow employers to adopt standard plan terms and select permitted options through an adoption agreement. The IRS consolidated master and prototype and volume submitter plans into a single “pre-approved plan” category beginning with Rev. Proc. 2017-41. Pre-approved plans may be standardized or non-standardized.

Announcement 2026-15 sets September 30, 2028, as the deadline for employers intending to maintain a Cycle 4 DC qualified pre-approved plan to adopt the updated plan. In addition, an employer adopting a newly approved Cycle 4 plan may, if otherwise eligible, apply for an individual determination letter between October 1, 2026, and September 30, 2028. Eligibility and filing requirements are set out in Rev. Proc. 2026-4.

For employers currently sponsoring a defined contribution plan using a pre-approved Cycle 3 document, this means they generally must adopt their document provider’s new Cycle 4 plan document by September 30, 2028, to continue maintaining the plan as a pre-approved plan. The Cycle 4 documents are designed to comply with the IRS’s 2023 Cumulative List of Changes in Plan Qualification Requirements for Defined Contribution Qualified Pre-approved Plans.

Although the adoption deadline is two years away, a practical near-term step for plan sponsors is to confirm which plan document they are currently using and who will handle the restatement. Sponsors using a pre-approved plan may also want to confirm with their document provider whether it has obtained a Cycle 4 opinion letter and when the updated document will be available for adoption.

Sources:

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/a-26-15.pdf

https://www.milliman.com/en/insight/benefits-alert-irs-cycle-4-dc-pre-approved-opinion