For Immediate Release
Washington, DC – Annette Guarisco Fildes, President and CEO of The ERISA Industry Committee, the leading trade association dedicated exclusively to the employee benefit and compensation interests of America’s largest companies, today made the following statement in reaction to the retirement proposals included in President Obama’s fiscal year 2016 budget.
“The President’s proposal to cap the amount of accrued benefits in tax-favored retirement plans and IRAs misses the mark and should be rejected. The proposal would create a disincentive for retirement savings as well as a compliance nightmare for plan sponsors and retirement savers alike. Tax-favored retirement savings accounts already have strict limits on the amount of annual benefits and contributions that can be made by employers and employees. Policymakers should be considering ways to expand and not discourage savings opportunities.”
“Likewise, ERIC opposes the President’s proposal to provide the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation with authority to set risk-based premiums based on its determination of the credit worthiness of a plan sponsor. This proposal continues to resurface each year, and policymakers appropriately have rejected it as an inappropriate and impractical expansion of government authority that would hurt plan participants and plan sponsors.”
“Putting the PBGC in charge of determining not only the amount of the premium that individual employers pay, but also the means by which they are set—with no effective oversight from Congress or another neutral party—would create a direct conflict of interest.”
“We support the Administration’s underlying goals to expand access to and the portability of retirement savings, but we encourage policymakers to first do no harm. Unnecessary and complex administrative burdens undermine the ability of large employers to provide robust and tailored retirement benefits to their workers. ERIC is committed to preserving and enhancing the successful voluntary employer-sponsored retirement system.”