Glossary

Form 5500 is the annual return-report that an ERISA-covered retirement plan files jointly with the Department of Labor, Internal Revenue Service, and Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, disclosing plan operations, financial condition, investments, and compliance for the plan year.

A glide path is the pre-specified schedule by which a target date fund's or lifecycle fund's asset allocation shifts from higher-risk to lower-risk allocations over time as the fund approaches its target date.

A hardship withdrawal is a distribution from a defined contribution plan taken while the participant is still employed, permitted only when the participant faces an immediate and heavy financial need that meets one of the categories specified by Treasury regulations.

An in-plan lifetime income option is a lifetime income arrangement offered inside an employer-sponsored defined contribution plan, where a participant can direct plan assets into a structure that pays income for life without leaving the plan to purchase a separate arrangement.

An investment committee is the governance body, typically a subset of or parallel to the plan committee, that exercises fiduciary responsibility over investment menu selection, monitoring, and de-selection for an ERISA-covered retirement plan, operating under the investment policy statement.