The Hill
Opinion article by Cindy Hounsell, WISER President
April 19, 2022
The U.S. Home of Representatives took a serious step just lately towards serving to thousands and thousands of People whose retirement financial savings have been impacted by the double hit of COVID and inflation.
The Securing a Robust Retirement Act, a invoice that targets scholar mortgage debtors, navy spouses and low-income earners, amongst others, for assist planning and saving for retirement, handed by a 414-5 vote on March 29.
Often known as “SECURE 2.0,” the invoice builds upon the SECURE Act which handed in 2019, increasing entry to office retirement plans. SECURE 2.0 reforms would particularly profit girls as they symbolize the vast majority of every of those focused teams.
Even so, the retirement story for a lot of working girls stays bleak.
Their family revenue in retirement is lower than males’s. And a current TIAA survey discovered that solely about one in three girls (31 p.c) are saving for retirement.
The pandemic has exacerbated this drawback. Between February 2020 and January 2022, practically 2 million girls left the workforce to take care of a cherished one. The misplaced wages and financial savings for a lot of of them will probably be troublesome, if not not possible, to make up.
SECURE 2.0 addresses this by extending the age at which girls and all retirees are required to start taking cash from their 401(ok)s and different retirement financial savings accounts.
Present legislation requires withdrawals to start at age 72. Underneath SECURE 2.0, folks can delay distributions till age 75. Some critics discover this provision as solely benefitting these with increased revenue, permitting extra time to guard their financial savings from being taxed. We see this as a useful coverage, contemplating the necessity for thus many individuals to maintain working properly into their 70s and offering them further time to atone for retirement financial savings.
The scholar mortgage provision will assist these saddled with debt to avoid wasting for retirement, lots of whom are younger girls who’ve had to decide on between mortgage repayments and retirement contributions. SECURE 2.0 would allow employers to contribute a “match” to an worker’s 401(ok) account primarily based on their scholar mortgage repayments.
Moreover, navy spouses, most instances girls, regularly sacrifice their very own profession aspirations and their capacity to avoid wasting for their very own retirement. Understanding this problem, SECURE 2.0 would supply a tax credit score for small employers that make navy spouses eligible for his or her retirement plan inside two months of rent; present an identical or non-elective contribution to the plan; and guarantee these spouses are one hundred pc vested in all employer contributions inside the similar time-frame.
The Saver’s Credit score, which gives decrease revenue earners a tax credit score as an incentive to avoid wasting, additionally would obtain a lift. SECURE 2.0 would simplify entry to the credit score and promote larger consciousness and use amongst girls with low- and moderate-incomes.
Furthermore, SECURE 2.0 would assist alleviate a priority of many ladies —outliving their financial savings. Certainly, an Allianz Life examine discovered that greater than 6 in 10 non-retirees worry operating out of cash in retirement greater than loss of life. SECURE 2.0 would make it simpler for employers to supply a later annuity payout choice in a 401(ok) or related plan — and as girls do sometimes outlive males — they’ll select a supply of revenue that will probably be accessible later in life.
Different vital provisions within the invoice would make auto-enrollment, a robust instrument to assist get folks to begin saving, a key function of newly created private-sector retirement plans. SECURE 2.0 additionally encourages small companies to begin retirement plans by rising tax credit for prices related to their formation.
Taken collectively, the enhancements in SECURE 2.0 advance the nation’s retirement safety system into the twenty first century. And whereas the overwhelming, bipartisan vote within the Home is a constructive signal, the Senate nonetheless should act and ship the invoice to the president’s desk.
For the sake of enhancing retirement safety for working girls in addition to for the sake of all People — let’s hope that occurs quickly.
Cindy Hounsell is president of Ladies’s Institute for a Safe Retirement (WISER).
See the article on-line at The Hill: https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/3273570-secure-2-0-will-advance-womens-retirement-security/
