DOL Secure 2.0 Rules Land at OMB
Senators told the acting Labor secretary to prioritize six retirement and benefit-related provisions.
The Labor Department has filed with the Office of Management and Budget rules and disclosures related to implementing Secure 2.0.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, prodded Labor in early June to get moving on Secure 2.0 implementation.
OMB reviews typically take 90 days. Once OMB approves the plan, Labor will issue it for public comment.
Sanders, along with HELP Committee ranking member Bill Cassidy, R-La., told the acting Labor secretary, Julie Su, to “prioritize administration” of six provisions:
- Section 127: Emergency savings accounts linked to individual retirement accounts — provides employers the ability to offer “pension-linked emergency savings accounts.”
- Section 321: Review of pension risk transfer interpretive bulletin — requires Labor to review its current bulletin governing pension risk transfers.
- Section 341: Consolidation of defined contribution plan notices — directs Treasury and Labor to amend regulations to allow a plan to consolidate certain notices into a single notice.
- Section 343: Defined benefit annual funding notices — requires annual notices to include information on plan assets, liabilities and funded status.
- Section 346: Worker Ownership, Readiness and Knowledge (WORK) Act — authorizes a $50 million grant fund to help establish and expand employee ownership centers and requires Labor to issue guidance on employee stock ownership plan valuation standards.
- Section 347: Report from Labor on the impact of inflation on retirement savings — directs the department to study the effects of inflation on retirement savings and report its findings to Congress.
ERISA attorney Fred Reish of Faegre Drinker told ThinkAdvisor Thursday in an email that the rules and disclosures Labor filed at OMB could also likely apply to sections of Secure 2.0 that address:
- requirements for pension plans;
- eliminating unnecessary plan requirements related to unenrolled participants;
- requirement to provide paper statements in certain cases;
- amendments to ERISA to generally provide that, with respect to defined contribution plans, unless a participant elects otherwise, the plan is required to provide a paper benefit statement at least once annually;
- defined contribution plan fee disclosure improvements; and
- consolidation of defined contribution plan notices.