The ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) today sent a letter to members of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee in support of the bipartisan Chairman’s Mark of the Enhancing American Retirement Now Act (EARN Act), which would strengthen the private-sector retirement system.
“We are pleased that the Chairman’s Mark incorporates several ERIC recommendations that we provided in testimony to the Committee last summer,” writes Andy Banducci, senior vice president of Retirement and Compensation Policy at ERIC. “Many of these provisions were also included in the bipartisan, House-passed Securing a Strong Retirement Act (H.R. 2954), the Senate HELP Committee’s Retirement Improvement and Savings Enhancement to Supplement Healthy Investments for the Nest Egg (RISE & SHINE) Act (S. 4353), and the Retirement Security and Savings Act (S. 1770, introduced by Senators Cardin and Portman).”
ERIC’s letter goes on to list and support measures in the Chairman’s Mark which would:
- Ease administrative burdens on plan sponsors by reducing unneeded notices and requiring regulators to review and make recommendations to simplify current disclosures
- Treat student loan payments as elective deferrals for the purpose of employer matching contributions
- Create a Lost and Found Database to help workers find lost pensions and alleviate challenges finding missing participants
- Stregthen retiree health care and life insurance benefits by continuing to permit overfunded pension plans to fund them
- Create a limited exemption from early withdrawal penalties for emergency expenses
- Update the cap for transferring former employees’ retirement funds to an IRA
- Increase the age for required minimum distributions to age 75
- Increase the catch-up limits for workers nearing retirement
- Clarify the rules for recoupment of inadvertent retirement plan overpayments to innocent participants
- Expand the ability to self-correct plan errors
To read the full text of ERIC’s letter supporting the Chairman’s Mark of the Enhancing American Retirement Now Act (EARN Act), visit its website at https://www.eric.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/ERIC-SFC-Letter-re-EARN-Act-FINAL.pdf.