The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019, better known as the SECURE Act, which originally passed the House in May 2019, was approved by the Senate a few months later, as part of an end-of-year appropriations act and accompanying tax measure, and signed into law on Dec. 20, 2019. The far-reaching bill includes significant provisions aimed at increasing access to tax-advantaged accounts and preventing older Americans from outliving their assets.

A Troubled Retirement System

That there’s trouble brewing in the U.S. retirement system, which requires most workers to supplement Social Security with personal savings, has been widely ackn♓owledged.꧂

According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics published in 2023, only 56% of the civilian adult population participated in a workplace retirement plan. And even 澳洲幸运5开奖🐼号码🌠历史查询:those who did were often woefully behind in investing part of their paycheck.

For instance, the wealth management giant Vanguard revealed in 2022 that the median 401(k) balance for those ages 65 and older was just $70,620. The SECURE Act aims to encourage employers who have previously shied away from these plans, which can be expensive and difficult💧 to administer, to start offering them.

“With [the] passage of this bill, the House made significant progress in fixing our nation’s retirement crisis and helping workers of all ages save for their futures,” Rep. Richard E. Neal (D-Massachusetts) said in a statement after the bill sailed through the House in May of 2019.

Tangled Up in the Senate

Despite the SECURE Act’s overwhelming support in the House, it didn't get through the Senate until it was attached to the appropriations and tax-extender bills that passed the day after President Trump was impeached in the House of Representatives.

In early July 2019, Planadviser reported that two Republican senators—one of them Ted Cruz (R-Texas)—were holding it up. According to a Washington insider, Cruz was trying to tweak the section on 529 accounts so that parents can use them for home-schooling expenses as well.

In October 2019, Plansponsor quoted Chris Spence, TIAA’s senior director of government relations, as saying the bill has been sitting "in something like legislative limbo." Along with Cruz, two other senators—Mike Lee and Pat Toomey—had reservations about some technical points. Spence was optimistic and predicted correctly that the route to passage could be through being attached to a broader bill that had to be passed by the end of 2020.

Major Provisions of the SECURE Act

The SECURE Act tweaked a number of rules related to 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:tax-advantaged retirement accounts. Here's what it did:

• Made it easier for small businesses to set up 401(k)s by increasing the cap under which they can 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:automatically enroll workers in “safe harbor” retirement plans from 10% of wages to 15%.
• Provided a maximum tax credit of $500 per year to employers who create a 401(k) or SIMPLE IRA plan with automatic enrollment.
• Enabled businesses to sign up part-time employees who work either 1,000 hours throughout the year or have 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查🐻询:t🍎hree consecutive years with 500 hours of service.
• Encouraged plan sponsors to include annuities as an option in workplace plans by reducing their liability if the insurer cannot meet its financial obligations.
• Pushed back the age at which retirement plan participants need to take 澳洲幸运5🍨开奖号码历史查询:required minimum distributions ꧂(RMDs) from 70½ to 72. (This was later raised to 73, starting in 2023).
• Allowed the use of tax-advantaged 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:529 accounts for qualified student loan repayments (up to $10,000 annually).
• Permitted penalty-free withdrawals of $5,000 from 401(k) accounts to defray the costs of having or adopting a child.
• Encouraged employers to include more annuities in 401(k) plans by removing their fear of legal liability if the annuity provider fails to provide, and also not requiring them to choose the lowest-cost plan. (This could be something of a 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:double-edged sword. Employees will need to look extra carefully at these options.)

One other key change in the bill was how to pay for all of this: the removal of a provision known as the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:stretch IRA, which has allowed non-spouses inheriting retirement accounts to stretch out disbursements over their lifetimes. The new rule requires a full payout from the inherited IRA within 10 years of the death of the original account holder, raising an estimated $15.7 billion in additional tax revenue.

Planners Evaluate These Changes

While retirement planner , CEO of Blue Ocean Global Wealth in Gaithersburg, MD, cautions that the bill is far from a cure-all for the nation’s retirement challenges, she says several of the provisions represent a step in the right directioꩵn.

In particular, she notes reducing the number of hours that employees are required to work 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:in order to sign up for 401(k)s can help expand participation. “That’s helpful for part-time employees, whether they’re just entering the workforce or about🐎 to leave,” Cheng sa🌠ys.

And she’s in favor of adding flexibility to 529 accoun♑ts, which could be used to repay some student loans under the bill. That’s a good option, she says, for parents who may have funds remaining in an educational savings account and want to help a child who has already graduated. “The SECURE Act provides more flexibility,” says Cheng.

For , a financial planner based in Los Angeles, moving the starting age for required m🧸inimum distributions to 72 also makes sense, given that people are living longer t🍒han they did a generation ago. “Pushing back RMDs will help people make their money last just a little bit longer, especially since more of them need to work later,” Rae says.

Impact on IRAs

The SECURE Act's impact on retirement accounts like IRAs and 401🔥(k)s will be significant. , CPA, CFP®, Head of Tax at Betterment, outlines what will change and how it will impact savers.

Inherited IRAs: The parts of the SECURE Act that will most immediately impact average Americans are its new guidelines around inherited IRAs. So let’s say you inherited a retirement plan like an IRA or a 401(k) as a non-spouse beneficiary. Under the old rules, you were able to withdraw from that retirement account over the rest of your life, but under the SECURE Act, you’ll have to take that money out within 10 years. Basically, through the SECURE Act, you’re compelled to pay taxes sooner. Those who saved a lot of money in their 401(k) or IRA, and hope to leave that money to a non-spouse beneficiary, might want to rethink their strategy on who they choose as a beneficiary, recognizing this new, shorter timeframe.

IRA Contributions: The SECURE Act will also impact traditional IRA contributions. Under the old rules, you had to be under age 70½ in order to contribute to a traditional IRA, but under the SECURE Act, anybody of any age can make a traditional IRA contribution. Of course, you still need to be able to demonstrate earned income (like from working at a job or self-employment), but before the SECURE Act, if you were 85 years old and still working, you wouldn’t have been able to contribute to a traditional IRA. Now, you’ll still be able to contribute, no matter what your age: workers over age 70½ can now make traditional IRA contributions, which also potentially allows them to make backdoor Roth IRA contributions.

Impact on Student Debt

The SECURE Act also allows people to withdraw up to $10,000 during their lifetime from their 529 plans, taxꦅ-free, in order to pay off their student loan debt. Originally, 529 plans were strictly for post-secondary education expenses, but that has beওen expanded to include K-12 expenses.

Under the SECURE Act, 529 funds can be used to pay off college debt. That said, not all states may allow the student loan benefit to come out tax-free at the s🔜tate level.

The Bottom Line

Whether the SECURE Act ends up being a retirement game-changer or not remains to be seen. But one thing is abundantly clear: The prior rules weren't allowing nearly enough Americans to put away the nest egg they’ll ultimately need for a secure retirement.