From Payroll To Retirement Plan and Back: Mastering the Mechanics of Modern Retirement Plan Electronic Data Exchange
Jacksonville doesn't do anything halfway — it's got more miles of coastline than any city in the continental United States, a river that runs right through its beating heart, and a reputation for doing big things in wide-open spaces. In that spirit, we're gathering on the banks of the St. Johns River to do some big things of our own. From the Payroll Pulse — a landmark study of 200 payroll administrators — to the nuts and bolts of API-driven integrations, SECURE 2.0 catch-up compliance, and the realities of getting a pooled plan from "yes" to go-live without losing your mind, this two-day working session is where the HCM and payroll platform community comes to roll up its sleeves, compare notes, and leave with something they can actually use on Monday morning. No flip-flops required — though we won't judge if you sneak down to the river between sessions.
WHO SHOULD ATTEND
This meeting is open to individuals at HCM and payroll platforms responsible for retirement plan data exchange — including product, implementation, compliance, and data integration teams. Joint sessions with retirement plan service providers.
AGENDA
Monday, May 4, 2026
5:40 p.m. — Meet at Marriott Jacksonville Downtown to head over to River & Post
6:00 p.m. — Dinner at River & Post, St. Johns Room
Tuesday, May 5, 2026
8:00 a.m. — Continental breakfast buffet at FIS Global
8:30 a.m. — OPENING AND WELCOME Charles Williams, Corebridge Financial — Conference Chair Neal Pepin, FIS Global — Host
8:45 a.m. — THE PAYROLL PULSE: WHAT ADMINISTRATORS REALLY THINK ABOUT THEIR PLATFORM
Our platform. Their experience. This session presents findings from a landmark study of 200 payroll administrators — the people on the front lines of processing contributions, correcting errors, and navigating the data handoff between payroll and retirement plan recordkeepers every pay period.
The survey examines five dimensions that directly affect how HCM and payroll platforms are evaluated, selected, and retained:
- Platform features and usability — dashboard tools, self-service portals, mobile access, and AI integration
- Retirement plan data integration — contribution file submission workflows, data fields exchanged, and return file content
- Reconciliation and error correction — who owns it, how often errors occur, and how they get resolved
- Roth catch-up compliance — how organizations are operationalizing the SECURE 2.0 $145,000/$150,000 FICA wage threshold mandate
- HCM platform capabilities — breadth of functions, employee communication segmentation, and retirement plan engagement
For HCM and payroll platform teams, this is your scorecard — and your roadmap.
Presenters: Eric Henon, EACH Enterprise | Co-presenter TBA
10:00 a.m. — BREAKOUT SESSIONS
BREAKOUT 1 — Catch-Up, but Make It Roth: SECURE 2.0 Section 603 in Plain English
Track: Compliance and Payroll Operations Teams
How your platform processes payroll for employees earning above $145,000 in FICA wages, Section 603 of SECURE 2.0 directly affects what you build, what you report, and how you communicate with clients and their retirement plan recordkeepers. This working session reviews the current landscape and aligns stakeholders on what comes next:
- The preferred data solution: adding a "Reached $145K FICA wages" Y/N indicator to the periodic payroll feed
- How HCM and payroll platforms drove plan sponsors and recordkeeper adoption of best practices in 2025
- 2025 outcomes — including whether firms relied on one-time annual files or real-time feed indicators
- Whether the preferred approach should be updated for the 2026 $150K threshold, and what that means for EDI standards
Moderator: TBA|
Location: Huddle
BREAKOUT 2 — Plug, Play, Payday: Modern Payroll-to-Retirement Integrations via API
Track: Data and Integration Teams
Flat files aren't going away overnight — but APIs are rapidly becoming the standard for connecting payroll platforms to retirement plan recordkeepers. This session is built for the teams designing, building, and maintaining those integrations. We'll cover:
- Core integration patterns: real-time vs. scheduled data exchange
- Common endpoints and data elements in payroll-to-recordkeeper workflows
- How to handle acknowledgements, errors, and reconciliation in an API-driven environment
- Governance essentials: authentication, consent frameworks, auditability, and change management across multiple vendor relationships
Attendees will leave with a practical checklist for scoping an integration, aligning internal stakeholders, and setting realistic testing and rollout timelines.
Moderator: TBA
Panelists: TBA
Location: Focus
11:05 a.m. — FROM "YES" TO GO-LIVE: POOLED PLAN IMPLEMENTATION AND ADOPTER ONBOARDING
Pooled Employer Plans are gaining ground — and payroll platforms sit at the center of making them work. When an employer adopts a PEP, the data handoff between the payroll platform, the pooled plan provider, and the recordkeeper is where timelines succeed or break down. This session walks through the full onboarding journey from the payroll platform's perspective:
- Eligibility data collection and plan setup requirements
- Payroll integration timing, deferral elections, and initial funding mechanics
- Common friction points: missing census data, notice and disclosure timing, and operational handoffs
- How to coordinate effectively with pooled plan providers and recordkeepers to drive a faster, cleaner go-live
Presenter and moderator: Deborah Rubin, CFP®
Location: Lab North/South
12:05 p.m. — Lunch and Adjour
VENUE
FIS Global
347 Riverside Avenue
Jacksonville, FL 32202
DRESS CODE
- Pre-event networking dinner: Casual
- Meeting sessions: Business Casual
HOTEL
Marriott Jacksonville Downtown
245 Water Street
Jacksonville, FL 32202
Room block rate: $189/night (taxes and incidentals not included) — Room link coming soon
COST
- HCM/Payroll platform professionals (data exchange responsibility): $950
- All others: $7,500
