Frequently Asked Questions
In 2022, Ascensus and Newport became part of a unified organization under Ascensus. Since then, we've been engaged in a thoughtful, measured, and collaborative approach that builds upon our collective strengths to deliver the best of the best our unified organization has to offer.
Our unique approach means the award-winning Newport web experience* you and your participants value today will serve as the digital framework moving forward, even after your plan has fully migrated to the Ascensus recordkeeping services platform in 2024—with ongoing benefits and enhancements as your experience evolves over time.
*DALBAR Review. Q4 2021.
Ascensus is the largest independent recordkeeping services provider, third-party administrator, and government savings facilitator in the United States.1 Our independence enables financial advisors and employers to build plans their way—choosing investments and services that support participants’ retirement readiness. Ascensus is well-positioned to bring a world-class experience to you and your participants.
We believe everyone deserves to feel financially secure. That's why Ascensus is helping more people save for a better future. With more than 40 years’ experience, Ascensus is a market-leading enabler of tax-advantaged savings, trusted by more than 14 million people (and counting).
We have over $808 billion in savings assets under administration. We serve more than 153,700 retirement plans and our 5,500+ associates are passionate about helping clients achieve their goals.2
Newport’s and Ascensus’ shared values and shared commitment to client experience, accountability, collaboration, quality, and integrity formed the foundation of our unification strategy and vision.
You can learn more about us at ascensus.com.
1Cerulli Associates. The Cerulli Report: U.S. Retirement Markets 2022. December 2023.
2As of March 31, 2024.
In 2019, First Citizens teamed with Newport to expand and enhance the retirement services program. In 2022, Ascensus and Newport became one company under Ascensus, a premier tax-advantaged savings program provider.
Plan Migration
Yes, your plan will be migrated to the Ascensus recordkeeping platform. With our focus on maintaining the “best of the best” from each of our organizations, you'll continue to have access to key features of your current experience.
- You can expect a smooth journey with minimal action required from you or your participants.
- You do not need to restate your plan documents.
- You do not need to sign new service agreements unless there is a legal requirement to do so.
- Your plan fees will stay the same through migration.
- We will migrate data over a weekend, reducing time out of market.
- Login credentials will remain the same.
- Participants do not need to re-register in the plan.
Your plan is scheduled to migrate over the weekend of November 15, 2024.
Yes. There will be a brief quiet period limited time, known as a "blackout period," when some activities will be suspended, allowing for your plan’s secure migration to Ascensus recordkeeping platform. Specific dates and cut-off times for processing transactions will be shared well ahead of migration.
November 11, 2024
- Last day for participants to request an online distribution or loan
November 12, 2024
- Last day for plan sponsors to approve online distribution or loan requests (if applicable)
- Last day to submit and fund a payroll for a payroll date on or before November 12, 2024. If funding via ACH pull, files must be received by 1:30 p.m. ET. Payrolls with a payroll date after November 12, 2024, should not be entered until after the migration is complete the week of November 18.
We anticipate trading activity and account updates to resume and the blackout period to end during the week of November 18, 2024. You'll be notified when your plan's migration is complete, and your plan website will be re-launched.
As a plan sponsor, you can look forward to continuous innovation with benefits that include:
- An enhanced plan sponsor dashboard, with comprehensive retirement plans view.
- Flexible payroll processing options—and more Payroll 360 integrations.
- Increased reporting capabilities.
Participants will have access to many of the features and functionality they value today, along with ongoing enhancements.
- Quick Enroll, My Forecast, and Personal Performance will still be available according to plan rules and participant investment elections.
- Investment elections will be mapped over, subject to minor adjustments to fractional investment elections (where applicable).
- Participants will still have access to their Newport Financial Wellness Learning Center.
- Participants will have access to the Ascensus READYSAVE™ retirement plan mobile app.
These experiences will continue evolving over time to further streamline your plan administration an provide new ways for your participants to save.
You'll also benefit from additional investments and upgrades behind the scenes when your plan moves. For example, a new customer relationship management tool implemented in 2023 enables even quicker resolution through expedited access to plan details and tracking. In addition, enhanced workflow technology was upgraded and relaunched for more efficient routing and processing.
First Citizens Bank & Trust Company will continue to serve as trustee.
Continuity and Enhancements
Plan Sponsor Experience
Ascensus is committed to providing as much continuity as possible in your service model and maintaining the same high level of responsiveness and support you expect.
While the unified organization will be branded Ascensus, you will continue to see Newport in some parts of your experience following migration. First Citizens Bank & Trust Company will continue to serve as trustee.
Yes. Your login credentials will remain the same and your current web experience will continue to serve as the digital framework moving forward, with ongoing enhancements over time. Once your plan has migrated, the website address will change to a different URL, but again, your login credentials will still work. We will let you know the new website address as your plan’s migration date approaches.
Yes. As we bring forward the best of each organization, some reports will remain the same, others will be enhanced, and new options will be added including a new, customizable, on-demand Plan Health Report. Your Quarterly Valuation reporting will be generated as multiple reports instead of one package, with some posted to the plan dashboard reporting section and others through the Plan Administration reporting section. This Reporting Overview Guide makes it easy to find the reports you need. HRIS reporting schedules will be maintained. Other scheduled reports will need to be re- established. Ad-hoc reporting functionality is being sunset. Moving forward, we will continue to review reporting needs and move towards a more unified reporting experience.
Yes. Your financial advisor has been notified that your retirement plan will be migrated in November and we will continue to keep them—and you—informed along the way. We fully understand the value of working with the financial advisor of your choice on all aspects of your company’s retirement plan, and we are committed to keeping an open line of communication with both you and your financial advisor.
Your current investment options will be automatically mapped to the Ascensus platform. If you'd like to make changes, you can work with your financial advisor to do so now. There is no need to wait until migration is complete to update your investment options.
Participant Experience
Participants have access to the participant migration website which includes helpful information, timeline milestones, and FAQs. Although the URL for the employee retirement plan website will change, the website functionality will essentially be the same. We are committed to making it easy for you to share what’s happening with your employees and answer any questions they may have.
Yes, participants will continue to access their accounts the same way they do today. Participant's existing login credentials will still work.
Available after migration, the READYSAVE mobile app offers a simple, streamlined, and supportive experience that is driven by data and backed by behavioral science to help participants make more informed decisions throughout their journey to retirement readiness. The app also has a Spanish language option. Participants will receive more information about downloading and using the app as soon as migration is complete.
In addition to the READYSAVE mobile app, participants will find Spanish and alternative language capabilities:
- On the employee website – the dashboard will still be available in Spanish; transactional pages will not.
- Through the call center – Spanish-speaking representatives and additional licensed and bonded language translation services are available.
- On forms – all standard distribution forms are available in Spanish and posted to all plan websites.
Yes. Data from January 1, 2021, forward will be securely carried over to the Ascensus recordkeeping platform. Statements from prior periods will continue to be available on the employee website.
When requests can be made online, it is recommended participants leverage this web-based functionality for streamlined processing and expedited delivery options. Participants can also request distributions via a suite of Ascensus transaction forms available on the plan website. Distribution forms are classified by plan type and triggering event, and there is a section to include rollover instructions for Roth funds. Newport forms will be accepted for 60 days post-migration.
As a result of SECURE 2.0 legislation, hardship requests can be self-certified via form or online. If your plan allows for hardship distributions, participants may now self-certify that their financial need qualifies as a hardship under the plan, and they will retain the supporting documentation to substantiate the reason for the hardship.
After migration, all plan sponsors whose plans offer loans and their participants will be able to request a loan directly online. Loans initiated online will be displayed under pending transactions on the plan website for your review and/or approval. If participants prefer to request a loan with a form, they can model the loan online and print the form for plan sponsor approval. This approach improves accuracy and helps ensure smooth processing. If a participant does not have online access to their retirement account, they can reach out to Participant Services for assistance.
Post-migration, fees will no longer be pulled directly from SDBAs and the ability to initiate distributions directly from SDBAs will no longer be available. It will be the participant’s responsibility to have enough invested in the plan’s core funds to cover SDBA fees and any distributions. Participants will see two funds in the plan lineup for their SDBA: The “cash” fund is used for investment elections as well as transfers to and from the core funds. The “invest” fund shows the market value of all securities within the brokerage account. New contributions and/or rebalances that are initiated or scheduled by the participant will post directly into SDBA “cash.”
After migration, terminated participants may change their address by calling Participant Services. Participants may also change their address at the time of a distribution by submitting the snapon Contact Change form with the Separation from Service distribution form. Note: There is a 14-day hold on distributions that are submitted with address changes.
Participants can designate beneficiaries using the Online Beneficiary Designation function on the employee website, which will be available to all plans at time of migration. Because beneficiary data
may have become outdated over time, Ascensus is taking this opportunity to help participants make sure their information is accurate. Ascensus has a robust online beneficiary user experience that captures some additional beneficiary election information. Following migration, participants will be prompted to revisit their online beneficiary elections to enter up-to-date information.
Where applicable, participants will also be prompted to re-establish and update their investment election, auto-rebalance election, and/or auto-increase deferral election.
Payroll & Contribution Funding
After migration, you can continue to submit payroll contributions as you do today—whether through a vendor, file upload via the plan website, or manual contributions. Your experience may be slightly different, but we’re taking great care to keep the process simple and streamlined—including mapping over your payroll file format, funding methods, and payroll contacts as part of migration. “How-to” guides for manual entry and file upload are available on the Resources page.
Yes. Your payroll integration will remain in place after your plan has migrated.
Ascensus offers a wide array of payroll integrations with external vendors, with both 180 and 360 options. See a complete list here.
After migration, the new Plan Administration portal on your dashboard will include two options to review management accounts: Search for “ZZ forfeiture” or “ZZ suspense” as last name for an individual management account in the Employee Search tool. Go to the Reports menu and run the Forfeiture and Suspense report. Manual and file upload: Available forfeiture and suspense funds will be displayed on the website when submitting your payroll. Contributions will be invested when all funding is received, including the sale of forfeiture funds, when applicable.
Yes, the process differs depending on how you submit your payroll. For manual and file upload, available forfeiture and suspense funds will be displayed on the website when submitting your payroll. Contributions will be invested when all funding is received, including the sale of forfeiture funds, when applicable. Contact your client service team to assist in offsetting future employer contributions.
Yes. After the migration is complete, the deadline for same-day trading of payroll contributions received in good order and submitted by ACH will change from 1:30 p.m. ET to 1:00 p.m. ET. Payroll contributions submitted after the deadline will trade on the following business day.
Plans will go through an initial set of edits before the file is transmitted to Ascensus. Once those edits are cleared, files are transmitted to Ascensus and go through additional checks. Any additional errors will be handled internally by Ascensus and if needed, you will be contacted for error resolution. You will be able to track the status of payroll at any time by selecting “Tracking Details” for any submitted payroll in process on the Contributions page.
Yes. All data must be in good order prior to processing the file.
Loan overpayments are removed during the payroll process. You will receive a notification with the participant(s), the overpayment amount(s), and a request that the amount(s) be refunded to the participant(s). The automated funding request (AFR) will reflect the reduced loan amount, as well.
Loans that required plan approval pre-migration will continue to require plan approval. If loan requests do not currently require plan sponsor approval, you will be notified of any pending loan requests and will have 48 hours to review them. If you do not approve or deny the request(s) via the plan website, the loan(s) will be deemed approved by you and processed on your behalf.
Payroll files containing multiple affiliates (or ‘sites’) must include Affiliate IDs. Check your format to make sure your file has all Affiliate IDs in the file for smooth processing and ongoing reporting. Missing Affiliate IDs may result in incorrect reporting by affiliate for the plan and may delay the processing of the file.
You can still fund from multiple bank accounts, but a single bank account will be assigned to each payroll site (or affiliate). The plan's contribution funding account can be updated on your plan website. From the Dashboard > Plan Administration > Contributions. Under Quick Links, click Update Bank Account and edit the banking information as necessary.
If negative values are included on your payroll files, additional action will be needed following submission. To improve your experience, we recommend not including negative contributions. If a negative contribution is identified on your submission, Ascensus will contact you to assist with correcting the affected participant.
On a monthly basis, residual distributions are automatically processed for terminated or retired participants who have balances under $100 and have taken a complete account distribution in the past 60 days. Participants may request residual distributions at any time via form or through the employee website. Residual distributions will not be automatically processed for distributions issued prior to migration.
Participants may request online distributions via the employee website for separation from service
(total payouts), in-service due to age 59½ (cash only), and hardship. As a plan sponsor, you may process online distributions via the plan website for separation from service (total payouts) and hardship.
Last updated September 13, 2024
Additional questions?
Your client service manager is here to support you every step of the way. Feel free to reach out with any questions.