Momentum builds for SECURE 2.0

Momentum is building for passing SECURE 2.0 retirement legislation into law this year. SECURE 2.0, seen as successor legislation to the SECURE Act, is shorthand for the following bills:

• Securing a Strong Retirement Act of 2022. The House passed this bill in March on a nearly unanimous vote.
• Enhancing American Retirement Now Act, also known as the EARN Act. The Senate Finance Committee advanced this bill to the full Senate on a unanimous vote in June.
• Retirement Improvement and Savings Enhancement to Supplement Healthy Investments for the Nest Egg Act of 2022, also known as the RISE & SHINE Act. The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pension Committee approved the RISE & SHINE Act on a unanimous voice vote in June. The full Senate can now consider the bill.

The two Senate bills would need to be combined and then reconciled with the House bill. The bipartisan support for the three bills, however, provides optimism that retirement legislation will be passed into law this year. Pension industry leaders believe the most likely path to enactment would be for SECURE 2.0 to be tacked on to a “must-pass” spending bill after the November general elections. This is similar to the way the SECURE Act was passed into law in 2019.

Some of the more significant proposals include the following:

• Matching student loan payments. Employers would be allowed to match participants’ student loan payments in the same manner as elective deferrals.
• Emergency distributions. Plans could allow a participant to receive a small “emergency” distribution each year without being subject to a 10% early withdrawal penalty. Participants would be able to repay the distribution amount to the plan.
• Increased catch-up contributions for older participants. Proposed legislation would increase the catch-up contribution limit to $10,000 for older participants (i.e., ages 60-63 in one bill and ages 62-64 in another). The current age 50 catch-up contribution provisions would not be affected by this change.
• Roth catch-up and Roth matching contribution changes. Participants earning more than $100,000 would be required to make catch-up contributions on a Roth basis. In addition, a plan could allow a participant to receive all or a portion of his/her matching contribution as a Roth contribution.
• Penalty-free domestic abuse distributions. A participant could receive a distribution on account of domestic abuse without a 10% early distribution penalty. A participant could repay the distribution amount to the plan.
• Penalty-free long-term care premium distributions. A plan could allow a participant to receive a distribution to pay for long-term care premiums without being subject to a 10% early distribution penalty.

Union Bank & Trust will continue to update you on retirement plan current developments. If you have any questions, please contact your Relationship Manager.