Last week saw the U.S. Senate pass an omnibus spending bill, which President Trump signed into law on Friday. Attached to this bill was the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act (SECURE Act), which would make changes to both employer-sponsored retirement plans and individual retirement accounts, most notably:

• Expand the ability of employers to partner together to offer multi-employer retirement plans, even across industries (Open MEPs);
• Increase the tax credit available to small employers from $500 to as much as $5,000 to offset plan start-up costs, as well as an additional $500 tax credit to help small employers encourage automatic enrollment;
• Raise the minimum age for required minimum distributions from retirement savings plans from 70 ½ to 72;
• Ease safe harbor requirements to encourage employers to offer annuity options within a 401(k) plan;
• Require defined contribution plans to provide a lifetime income disclosure to participants every 12 months;
• Require sponsors of 401(k) plans to allow part-time workers to become eligible for enrollment following an eligibility period;
• Require beneficiaries of IRAs to withdraw all plan assets within a set period of time (generally 10 years) after the death of the account holder.

Feel free to reach out to your Foster & Foster consultant with any questions you may have.