Distribute Section 125 SPD - Knowledge Base | BerniePortal

Distribute Section 125 Summary Plan Description - Benefits

If your organization pre-taxes employee benefit deductions, you likely have a Section 125 Summary Plan Description (SPD) that explains the plan to participants. This setting controls whether BerniePortal requires employees to review that document during enrollment.

Who can update this setting

Employers with the Benefits feature enabled can turn this setting on or off — including a Global Admin who is masquerading as the employer. Benefits Feature Admins don't see this control; their Settings tab only includes email notification settings.

Turn Section 125 SPD distribution on or off
  1. Select Benefits in the top navigation bar.
  2. Select Settings in the secondary navigation bar.
  3. Select General in the left-side menu (selected by default when Settings opens).
  4. Next to Distribute Section 125 summary plan description to employees during enrollment, select Yes to turn distribution on, or No to turn it off.
Your selection saves immediately — there's no separate save button for this field.

What happens when this is turned on

During enrollment, an employee whose subgroup has an SPD uploaded sees the document and must check a box confirming they've reviewed it before they can continue enrolling. The document also remains available afterward from Benefits > General Docs in the employee's account, whether or not this setting is on.

The SPD file itself is uploaded on the subgroup's Configure page, not on this Settings screen. See Benefit Subgroup Configuration Area for the upload steps.

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