Vol. XIX, Issue 38

June 23, 2020

CARES Act Updates—PPP Loan Forgiveness Updates and Additional Transparency

Loan Forgiveness Regulations and Documents Updated for PPP Flexibility Act

On June 16, 2020, the Small Business Administration (SBA) and Department of Treasury (Treasury) published revised and additional regulations and guidance about the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES Act). The SBA published a revised PPP Loan Forgiveness Form and Instructions (dated as of June 16, 2020), a new "EZ" PPP Loan Forgiveness Form and Instructions (a simpler form for certain borrowers), and an interim final rule that revises part of the Loan Forgiveness Rule and the Loan Review Rule from June 1, 2020 based on the new terms of the Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act (PPPFA), which became law on June 5, 2020. You can read more about the PPPFA here.

Wespath is working with the General Council on Finance and Administration (GCFA) to revise and update our PPP loan forgiveness guides and FAQs for UMC borrowers. Updated materials should be available soon.

New PPP Transparency Announced

On June 19, 2020, SBA and Treasury announced in a press release an agreement with bipartisan leaders of the U.S. Senate Small Business Committee to publish additional information regarding PPP loans and borrowers. The SBA will disclose information about a borrower such as the business name, address, NAICS (business classification) code, ZIP code, business type, demographic data, non-profit information, jobs supported, and one of the following loan amount ranges:

According to the SBA, these loan amount categories account for nearly 75% of PPP loans. In addition, the SBA will release aggregate information about PPP loans below $150,000, e.g., total loan amounts will be released, aggregated by zip code, by industry, by business type, and by various demographic categories. It does not appear that SBA will publish business names of individual borrowers with loans of less than $150,000.

As a result, some UMC borrowers are likely to have their organization name, PPP loan amount range, and certain other organizational data published by the SBA.

Please direct any questions you may have about the CARES Act to Tony Prestipino, Andy Hendren, Steve Clark or Jim O'Connell.

Updating Records in Benefits Access

It is that time of year again to update records in Benefits Access for clergy moves. As you prepare to finalize your data, here are a couple of key points to consider as we head into this year's move cycle:

If you have questions, please contact your Plan Sponsor Manager.

Wespath Signs Investor Statement of Solidarity to Address Systemic Racism

Last week, Wespath joined 128 investors in a public statement of solidarity and call to action to address systemic racism. Read the statement here.

Systems Unavailable—June 30 at 8 p.m.

Wespath Portal, Benefits Access (participant and plan sponsor portals), Contribution Management, Wespath Institutional Investor Portal and the Comprehensive Benefit Funding Plan will be unavailable Tuesday, June 30 at 8:00 p.m. to July 1 at 7:00 a.m., Central time to allow for system maintenance and updates.

We apologize for any inconvenience this brief outage may cause.

Reminder—July Benefits Delayed for New Retirees

Initial benefit payments for July 1 retirees are sent on the second business day of the month and generally arrive within three business days. Since banks are closed to observe the Independence Day holiday on July 3, payments will generally be available July 8 for retirees who are receiving payments electronically.

Participants retiring on July 1 were sent an eblast or postcard to notify them about the payment delay.

If you have questions, please contact the Retirement Team at 1-800-883-4078 or RetirementTeam@wespath.org, or your plan sponsor manager at 1-800-269-2244, ext. 4003.

Reminder—Adoption Agreements for 2021

As a reminder, Wespath recognizes that many of you are planning to hold annual conference meetings virtually this year or in the fall. We request that you try to keep to the normal annual timing for submitting 2021 adoption agreements as much as possible to ensure fall actuarial reports reflect the final 2021 Past Service Rates (PSR). If the rates are not final due to a delayed annual conference meeting, you may add a comment to that effect with your adoption agreement submission. We apologize for any challenges caused by the approaching deadline for adoption agreement submissions.

Please complete and submit the following documents:

If you are making changes for 2021, please also complete and submit:

If you are not making changes to CRSP or UMPIP, you do not need to submit adoption agreements for those plans for 2021; your current elections will continue to apply.

Please contact:

*If your annual conference is adopting UMPIP Automatic Features for the first time effective January 1, 2021, please contact Sue Peterson at 1-847-866-4229 or speterson@wespath.org.


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