By Jane Smith
Among the many year-end bills that are circulating in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives are a number that include fixes for Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) and 401(k)-type retirement savings plans. Some of the fixes are found in several bills; others are in just one of the bills. The bills are an alphabet soup of acronyms including RESA, the Retirement Enhancement and Savings Act of 2018; FSA, the Family Savings Act of 2018; EASA, the Encouraging Americans to Save Act and WPPA, the Women’s Pension Protection Act. Some of the fixes in the bills have been kicking around for a while; others are new.
Several proposals that may be of particular interest to plan participants and IRA account owners are provisions that would:
Several of the bills include measures to enable unrelated small employers to join together to form a 401(k) plan. These provisions for “open multiple employer plans” would shift responsibility for running the plan away from employers to a financial institution or other entity.
Congress may leave town without passing a retirement bill or passing a bill that includes only a few of these provisions. However, since most of these provisions are in more than one bill, the chances are good that they will reappear in the next Congress. Stay tuned!