On August 31, 2018, President Trump released an Executive Order on “Strengthening Retirement Security in America.” You can see the text here. The Order outlines the issue of low workplace retirement plan coverage and seeks to ease the regulatory burdens that might prevent employers from offering such solutions.
The Order specifically directs the Secretaries of Labor and Treasury to explore ways to enhance the ability of employers to adopt multiple employer plans, which allow different employers to partner in offering a retirement plan thereby reducing the associated financial and administrative burden on any one employer. The Order also urges improvement in required plan notices and disclosures, both in terms of cost and usefulness. Finally, the Order asks for a review of the mortality basis used for minimum required plan distributions.
This Order is a positive step for retirement, with the potential to make retirement plans available to a larger percentage of working Americans. The Order itself does not require any changes to retirement program laws and regulations. We must wait for the Secretaries to issue the results of their reviews before we will know what changes might be implemented. For many of the items in the Order, the Secretaries have six months to comply.
We will continue to monitor such issues and update you, as appropriate. In the meantime, feel free to reach out to your Foster & Foster consultant with any questions you may have.