IRS Releases Guidance on Section 324 of the SECURE 2.0 Act to Standardize Rollovers; Comments Due October 23

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued Notice 2026-49 to simplify and standardize the rollover process between eligible retirement plans to individual retirement accounts (IRAs). Included with the notice are four sample forms and procedures for both participants and plan sponsors.

In Notice 2026-49, the IRS explains how the sample forms are used as part of a five-part procedure for rollovers:

• Step 1: the Participant submits a rollover request to the Receiving Plan using Form 1 (Participant’s Rollover Request), including an executed Participant’s Rollover Request Authorization.
• Step 2: the Receiving Plan submits the Participant’s rollover request to the Distributing Plan using Form 2 (Receiving Plan’s Request to Distributing Plan) with the Participant’s Rollover Request Authorization attached.
• Step 3: the Distributing Plan verifies the accuracy of the information on Form 1. Following verification, the Distributing Plan uses Form 3 (Distributing Plan’s Rollover Certification) to transmit information to the Receiving Plan about the Participant’s Distributing Plan account, including the possible rollover transfer methods.
• Step 4: the Receiving Plan verifies that it can receive the rollover. Following verification, the Receiving Plan uses Form 4 (Receiving Plan’s Rollover Acceptance) to accept the rollover and select one of the rollover transfer methods offered by the Distributing Plan.
• Step 5: the Distributing Plan transfers the rollover to the Receiving Plan using the selected rollover transfer method.

Comments are due by October 23, 2026.

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