Preparing for 2026: How HR teams can stay ahead

The new year is fast approaching, so now is the time to be doing things to set yourself up for success in 2026. Two essential elements of preparing for next year are making sure your employee handbook is in order, and you are ready for retirement and health/welfare benefit plans deadlines and changes.

It’s handbook season

Yes, it’s that time of year again, one of the most important for employers—handbook update season! As the new year approaches, so do dozens of new state laws that will take effect on January 1 and beyond.

That means that the policies in employee handbooks need to be reviewed for compliance with changes in the laws, recent caselaw, the latest regulatory guidance, and current company practices. Employers should conduct such a review at least yearly and have the final product reviewed by counsel with expertise in employment law.

Of particular note are new laws and amendments to existing laws in the areas of sick leave (both paid and unpaid), family leave, and leave related to acts of violence. These laws either create an entitlement to such leave or expand the reasons for which employees may take such leave. Additional new and updated state policies provide for required accommodations for pregnancy, related conditions, and lactation breaks.

Want to avoid the compliance headache? BLR’s Employee Handbook Builder allows you to create, edit, update, and publish a fully compliant handbook for every jurisdiction in which you have employees by simply answering the relevant questions. The Employee Handbook Builder is managed by BLR’s legal editorial team working in close collaboration with attorneys at Jackson Lewis.

The Employee Handbook Builder includes all policies that are required by law, those that are considered best practices, and other optional policies. It also provides explanations and guidance on the application of the policies based on individual employers’ size and business practices.

So far, BLR has updated or added 15 policies and counting in the Builder in anticipation of 2026 changes. In addition, it has incorporated a surprising number of updates to address laws that have or will take effect during the last quarter of 2025.

Let BLR’s Employee Handbook Builder take the hassle out of your company’s handbook season!

Year‑end compliance for employee benefit plan sponsors

Recent legislation has made a vast number of changes in the law affecting both retirement and health/welfare benefit plans, each with its own operational compliance dates. Although far from an exhaustive list, below are some of the hot-button items that HR professionals should be tracking as 2025 comes to a rapid close.

New mandatory Roth catch-up contribution requirement

The most immediate operational problem on the retirement plan front is for 401(k), 403(b), and other defined contribution plans that allow catch-up contributions. Effective January 1, 2026, all catch-up contributions made by employees who had FICA wages in 2025 of greater than $145,000 from an employer for which they currently work, must make any catch-up contributions to that employer’s plan in the form of a Roth contribution.

For 2025, the SECURE 2.0 Act allowed plans to permit participants ages 60, 61, 62, or 63 to make “super catch-up contributions” equal to 150 percent of the age 50 catch-up contribution limit. For 2026 and later years, SECURE 2.0 requires most plans to require all catch-up contributions (age 50 or “super” age 60-63 catch-up contributions) to be made as a Roth contribution, if a participant’s FICA wages exceeded $145,000.

FICA wages are tested with a one-year look-back and only consider wages from the same employer in the look-back year and the current year.

Given the January 1, 2026, effective date, decisions about how to address the catch-up Roth requirement, including coordination with third-party plan service providers, as well as required participant mailings and elections, need to be made now.

Other and ongoing plan deadlines

As in most prior years, retirement and health/welfare benefit plans require a number of year-end compliance deadlines.

Annual cost-of-living increases

Each year, various agencies (Treasury/IRS, DOL, HHS, etc.) publish the increases in various limits tied to the cost-of-living increase. Many contributions and benefit limits will increase for 2026, so your payroll and recordkeeping systems will need to be updated.

Notice for start of plan year

A number of participant notices are due 30 days before the start of each plan year (e.g., by December 1st), most notably:

• Qualified Default Investment Alternative” (“QDIA”) notice for participant-directed investments in a 401(k) or 403(b) plan;
• Safe harbor 401(k) or 403(b) plan notice (including the new adoption of a safe harbor structure for 2026);
• Automatic enrollment 401(k) or 403(b) plan notice, regardless of whether it is a “safe harbor” plan; and
• Annual plan fee notices for participant-directed defined contribution plans.

Notice for group health plans

Group health insurance plans have many notice requirements, both at initial enrollment and on an ongoing, annual basis. Make sure that you, your insurer, or other service provider has provided all notices required under your group health plan this year, which may include:

• Women’s Health and Cancer Rights Act notice;
• Children’s Health Insurance Program notice;
• Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”) privacy notice; or
• Medicare Part D notice.

Colette Labate, JD, MBA, PHR, is a Senior Legal Editor for BLR’s human resources and employment law publications. Before joining BLR, Ms. Labate spent 12 years as a legal writer, editorial manager, content developer, and project manager at LexisNexis Publishing. She has an MBA in Management and a Graduate Certificate in Marketing from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, where she previously taught Business Law. Ms. Labate graduated Order of the Coif from Drake University Law School, where she served as Editor and Note Editor for the law review.

Kelly Ryan, JD, is a Senior Legal Content Specialist, focusing on benefits compliance. Before coming to BLR, he worked as in-house legal counsel for various retirement service providers and the Colorado health insurance exchange. Mr. Ryan received his law degree from DePaul University College of Law and a B.S. in Accounting from the University of Illinois. He is a member of the Colorado bar.