SECURE 2.0: Implementing the mandatory 401(k) plan design changes

SECURE 2.0 Act

As part its year-end spending bill, which was signed into law on December 29, 2022, Congress enacted the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement bill, or “SECURE 2.0.”  SECURE 2.0 is a wide-raging collection of retirement plan legislation that, among other things, is aimed at improving retirement preparedness through increasing access to retirement plans and the amount of retirement assets, reducing the cost and administrative burden to employers of maintaining or establishing retirement plans, and synchronizing rules across different types of retirement vehicles.

Following on the heels of retirement plan legislation enacted in December 2019, and retirement plan provisions included in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act of 2020, many provisions of SECURE 2.0 are direct extensions of, or otherwise modeled on, similar provisions in those earlier pieces of legislation. However, SECURE 2.0 goes much farther in changing the retirement plan landscape.