Published
April 02, 2019
This morning, the House Ways and Means Committee will markup the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act of 2019. The SECURE Act contains a number of provisions that will enhance retirement security such as increasing the 10% cap to 15% for the auto enrollment safe harbor, simplifying the 401(k) safe harbor, allowing for trusttotrust distributions of lifetime income products, providing small employer startup and auto enrollment credits, and giving nondiscrimination relief to certain frozen defined benefit plans.
The SECURE Act does not include provisions that would allow for open multiple employer plans (MEPs), which allow groups of unrelated employers to band together to provide a robust retirement plan for their employees. However, an amendment was introduced that will allow for open MEPs, and the U.S. Chamber supports inclusion of this in the markup. Open MEPs are an efficient way for employers to provide retirement coverage, while maintaining the vital ERISA protection for participants and beneficiaries. Administrative savings achieved through open MEPS allow small employers to offer their employees retirement plans that are competitive with larger employer plans, which in turn will help retain and attract talent.
The Chamber applauds the efforts to expand open MEPS and looks forward to working with lawmakers on advancing retirement security.
About the authors
Glenn Spencer
Spencer oversees the Chamber’s work on immigration, retirement security, traditional labor relations, human trafficking, wage hour and worker safety issues, EEOC matters, and state labor and employment law.
