Bipartisan legislation was introduced Tuesday to allow 401(k) participant communications to be delivered electronically.

Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., and Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tenn., introduced the bipartisan Receiving Electronic Statements to Improve Retiree Earnings (RETIRE) Act, which they said would “ensure employers make retirement information easily accessible online, while providing protections for employees who prefer to receive paper documents.”

Under current law, the lawmaker said, “employers are required to waste significant money and paper mailing documents like notices, disclosures and statements to retirees.”

Estimates put the costs of sending just one four-page notice to recipients is between $36 million and $60 million, the lawmakers note.

“We need to make it easier for Americans to think about and plan for retirement,” said Polis in a statement announcing the legislation. “Nowadays, most Americans prefer their inbox to their mailbox. The RETIRE Act makes planning one-click away by giving employees online access to their retirement information. Not only does it make retirement information more accessible, but it helps the environment and reduces costs by cutting back on wasted paper.”

Roe, a member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, added that “by encouraging savers to receive their retirement plan information online, this commonsense bill will lower administrative costs, provide more timely access to plan information and allow greater interaction with and personalization of retirement savings,” at a time when more participants are dealing with their financial needs online.

The legislation, Roe continued, “provides important consumer protections, allowing participants to opt out and receive paper statements at any time with no additional cost.”

Brian Graff, CEO of the American Retirement Association, said ARA “strongly endorses this important legislation that would significantly reduce plan costs helping both plan sponsors and participants,” adding that ARA “will be working hard in 2018 to try and get this issue finally addressed.”

Polis—who sits on the Committee on Rules, the Committee on Education and the Workforce, the Committee on Ethics, and the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee—is also a member of the Problem Solvers Caucus, a bipartisan group of legislators that say they’re “determined to counter congressional gridlock.”

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Melanie Waddell

Melanie is senior editor and Washington bureau chief of ThinkAdvisor. Her ThinkAdvisor coverage zeros in on how politics, policy, legislation and regulations affect the investment advisory space. Melanie’s coverage has been cited in various lawmakers’ reports, letters and bills, and in the Labor Department’s fiduciary rule in 2024. In 2019, Melanie received an Honorable Mention, Range of Work by a Single Author award from @Folio. Melanie joined Investment Advisor magazine as New York bureau chief in 2000. She has been a columnist since 2002. She started her career in Washington in 1994, covering financial issues at American Banker. Since 1997, Melanie has been covering investment-related issues, holding senior editorial positions at American Banker publications in both Washington and New York. Briefly, she was content chief for Internet Capital Group’s EFinancialWorld in New York and wrote freelance articles for Institutional Investor. Melanie holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Towson University. She interned at The Baltimore Sun and its suburban edition.