ERISA Annual Funding Notice Deadlines: The 120-Day Clock, SECURE 2.0 Content Changes, and the Electronic Delivery Record

Summary

The Annual Funding Notice (AFN) has a statutory furnishing deadline. Calendar-year plans generally have 120 days after year-end to furnish it. SECURE 2.0 changed required AFN content for notice years beginning after 2023. Electronic delivery must follow an applicable U.S. Department of Labor safe harbor and produce a reviewable evidence record.

The AFN is a separate regulatory notice

ERISA section 101(f) and 29 CFR 2520.101-5 require the administrator of a covered defined benefit pension plan to furnish an AFN each year. The notice describes plan funding information and other required disclosures.

The AFN is not the same as an annual Form 5500 filing or an event-triggered notice to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). A Form 10 addresses certain reportable events under a separate PBGC rule. Multiemployer withdrawal-liability notices also arise under a distinct process. See the guides to PBGC Form 10 deadlines and multiemployer withdrawal-liability notices.

Calculate the 120-day furnishing deadline

The ordinary rule requires furnishing the AFN no later than 120 days after the end of the notice year. The notice year is the plan year to which the AFN relates. For a calendar-year plan, the 2025 notice was generally due April 30, 2026. The 2026 notice is generally due April 30, 2027.

A small-plan exception uses a different clock. The AFN is due by the earlier of the date the plan's annual report is filed or its due date, including extensions. For multiemployer plans, the regulation defines a small plan as one with 100 or fewer participants on each day of the plan year preceding the notice year. For single-employer plans, the regulation references the small-plan exception in ERISA section 303(g)(2)(B), which likewise generally reflects a 100-participant test; when counting, all single-employer defined benefit plans maintained by the same controlled group are treated as one plan. Verify the statutory test rather than assuming a participant count alone determines eligibility.

This exception is tied to the annual report deadline. It does not make the AFN optional, and an extension does not automatically set the AFN deadline if the annual report is filed earlier. Build the relevant Form 5500 filing date, extension status, and AFN deadline into the plan's compliance calendar.

Apply SECURE 2.0 content changes

SECURE 2.0 section 343 changed AFN content for notice years beginning after December 31, 2023. The first affected notice year was generally 2024. The Department of Labor's Field Assistance Bulletin 2025-02, issued April 3, 2025, provides implementation guidance and model notices.

For single-employer plans, the updated notice must:

• Replace the funded-target attainment percentage disclosure with the percentage of plan liabilities funded, calculated using year-end market-value assets and liabilities.
• Include tabular participant demographic data for the notice year and the preceding two years.
• Add the plan's average return on assets for the notice year.
• Omit the former at-risk liability disclosure.

FAB 2025-02 includes a model notice for single-employer plans in Appendix 1 and a model for multiemployer plans in Appendix 2. Use of the models is not mandatory. Administrators using a model or an internally developed notice should confirm that the finished notice contains all required information. The bulletin also addresses use of reasonable, good-faith estimates for certain notice-year participant counts while further guidance is pending. Small plans should review the bulletin's limitations on estimates before relying on them.

Confirm multiemployer plan disclosures

A multiemployer AFN includes the funded percentage for the notice year and the two preceding years. It also includes required statements of plan assets and liabilities, fair market value of assets, funding policy, and investment policy. The notice must describe asset allocation as percentages of total assets at the end of the notice year.

The AFN must also state whether the plan was in endangered, critical, or critical-and-declining status for the notice year. If applicable, the notice includes related information about the plan's funding improvement or rehabilitation plan. Critical-and-declining status triggers additional disclosures, including the projected insolvency date and related benefit-reduction information. Review the applicable requirements in 29 CFR 2520.101-5.

Choose and document a permitted electronic delivery method

Electronic delivery changes the method of furnishing, not the AFN deadline. The plan must still make the notice available to recipients by the applicable deadline and use a method that satisfies the governing safe harbor.

Under 29 CFR 2520.104b-1(c), the traditional electronic disclosure safe harbor covers eligible employees with effective access to electronic systems as an integral part of their job duties and individuals who affirmatively consent to electronic delivery. The rule includes requirements for actual receipt safeguards, privacy, notice of the document's significance where needed, and paper copies on request. Consent procedures must explain matters such as withdrawal rights and access requirements.

The alternative 2020 notice-and-access safe harbor, 29 CFR 2520.104b-31, applies to covered pension-plan disclosures. It requires an initial paper notification before the administrator relies on the method for an individual. The notice explains electronic delivery, identifies the address to be used, and describes the individual's rights to request paper documents and opt out.

For notice-and-access, the administrator generally sends a Notice of Internet Availability (NOIA) when the AFN is posted. The posted notice must be available by the furnishing deadline and remain online for at least one year, or longer if it has not yet been superseded. It must be readable, printable, searchable, retainable, and protected against unauthorized access.

A combined NOIA is permitted for specified annual documents that do not require action by a particular deadline. It must be furnished each plan year and, if one was furnished in the prior plan year, no more than 14 months after that prior notice. The combined-NOIA timing does not extend the AFN's furnishing deadline. For a practical overview of these electronic notice requirements, distinguish safe-harbor eligibility, initial notice, NOIA timing, posting, and opt-out processing.

Track the 2026 paper-statement proposal separately

On February 25, 2026, the Department published a proposed rule, "Requirement To Provide Paper Statements in Certain Cases. Amendments to Electronic Disclosure Safe Harbors". It proposes changes implementing SECURE 2.0 section 338, which concerns paper delivery of certain pension benefit statements.

The proposal is not an AFN content or deadline amendment. The paper-statement requirement concerns ERISA section 105 statements, while the AFN arises under section 101(f). The proposal also states that the Department will not take enforcement action against plan administrators that, before final regulations or other applicable guidance, comply in good faith with a reasonable interpretation of the proposal's provisions. Track any final rule or subsequent agency guidance separately from the AFN calendar.

Build an AFN evidence file

A defensible notice record connects the obligation, approved content, recipient population, delivery method, and completion date. Maintain a file that includes:

• The notice year, applicable deadline, plan type, and small-plan analysis, if relevant.
• The final AFN version, approval record, and supporting data used to prepare it.
• The recipient list and any reconciliation showing the covered categories of recipients.
• For paper delivery, the mailing date, address file, and available mailing receipts.
• For electronic delivery, the applicable safe harbor, address and consent or eligibility records, initial paper notification where required, and copies of NOIAs or emails.
• Website posting dates, document location, accessibility period, and any outage or address-failure response.
• Paper-copy requests, opt-out elections, corrections, and the dates they were processed.

The one-year online availability requirement under notice-and-access is not a complete record-retention schedule. For records subject to ERISA section 107, 29 U.S.C. § 1027 generally requires retention for at least six years after the relevant annual report is filed. Confirm which AFN materials fall within that requirement and apply any longer governing retention rule or legal hold.

Where paper mailing is selected, a USPS Certified Mail receipt can support proof of mailing. Retain the exact notice version and recipient record separately, because a mailing receipt alone does not establish the contents of the envelope. Certified Mail is not an AFN-specific requirement.

Annual control sequence

1. Identify the plan type, notice year, recipient categories, and deadline.
2. Confirm required content against section 101(f), the regulation, and current DOL guidance.
3. Approve the notice and reconcile the recipient population.
4. Select a permissible delivery method and verify its conditions.
5. Furnish by the deadline and document posting, mailing, transmission, and exceptions.
6. Preserve the notice record under the applicable retention schedule.

General compliance information, not legal advice.