There are 92 provisions in the new SECURE 2.0 Act—and by at least one assessment, they are “almost universally good, with ‘good’ being defined as ‘helpful to the cause of promoting retirement security.’” Group Plan Systems’ Pete Swisher and Cherisha Chapman rank the Top 10 Impact Provisions—and Top 5 new burdens.
According to “A Quick Reference to the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022,” the Top 10 Highest Impact Provisions are:
- “Mostly free” plan startup costs due to large increase in tax credits
- “Mostly free” credits can be used to join PEPs and other MEPs
- “Starter 401(k)” or 403(b)—a simple, deferral-only safe harbor design
- Mandatory auto-enrollment and auto-escalation for new plans
- “Saver’s match” deposited by Treasury into workers’ accounts
- 403(b) pooled employer plans (PEPs)
- Emergency savings “sidecar” accounts and penalty-free withdrawals
- Student loan matching without hurting nondiscrimination testing
- “Group of Plans” (GoP) audits must be employer-by-employer
- A long list of simplifiers for things like notices, top heavy, and corrections
As for the Top 5 new burdens:
- Massive systems updates while we’re still not done with SECURE 1.0
- Long-term, part-time employees eligible for deferrals in two years, not three
- Sidecar emergency savings accounts are great but a heavy lift to build
- Catch-up contributions must be Roth if income is above $145,000
- One participant statement per year must be paper
You can access the full document HERE.
