Lawmakers on the House Ways & Means Committee introduced legislation last week to help Americans increase their retirement savings and improve the portability of funds from one plan to another.
The Setting Every Community up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act of 2019 was introduced by Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-MA) and Ranking Member Kevin Brady (R-TX), along with Reps. Ron Kind (D-WI) and Mike Kelly (R-PA).
“With this legislation, we’re taking bold, bipartisan action to address our nation’s retirement crisis,” Neal said. “Providing more, and easier, ways to save allows workers to actively plan for their futures and avoid falling into poverty later in life. Boosting Americans’ financial security in retirement supports families and strengthens our economy.”
Wayne Chopus, president and CEO of the Insured Retirement Institute (IRI), praised Neal for making this bill a legislative priority.
“It’s quite clear to me that Chairman Neal says what he means,” Chopus said. “Three months ago, Chairman Neal put retirement security on his priority list and since then, we’ve had a hearing, negotiations, a new bill and a scheduled vote to advance it to the House floor. This is major progress.”
The legislation would expand opportunities to save for retirement; increase access to lifetime income products; help savers make more-informed decisions about their finances for retirement; and enhance features of workplace retirement plans.
It will also include provisions to remove restrictions on an employer’s ability to band together in a Multiple Employer Plan. This allows small businesses to achieve economies of scale and delegate to a professional plan fiduciary the responsibility for sponsoring the plan. This would facilitate more employers offering a retirement plan to workers.
It also features a change to the tax code to ensure the portability of lifetime income products. Further, it would enhance automatic enrollment and escalation features. Studies have that participation rates are at least 10 percentage points higher in plans with automatic enrollment.
“We look forward to next week’s committee vote to advance this bill to the House floor,” Chopus said. “This is clearly is a major-step forward to address our looming retirement crisis.”