Our Request to Congress: Save Our Savings (and Retirement)!

retirement, savings, 401k

Sending out a retirement SOS.

Like most people, we were interested to see the details of President Trump’s new tax plan.

The existing private-sector retirement system allows middle-class Americans to make the most of their retirement dollars, so we were pleased to see US House of Representatives’ “Tax Cuts & Jobs Act” preserve popular retirement savings options that help Americans save for their retirement, such as 401k plans and Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs).

With the passage of the plan in the House, its fate now rests in the hands of the Senate. However, the debate is not yet over.

The Senate had unveiled a version of the plan November 9 which imparted a few changes to the original House plan.

One of these relates to the so-called “catch-up” provision. Currently, all individuals over the age of 50 can make extra pre-tax (catch-up) contributions to their defined contribution plans—that is, contribute a bit more money than younger individuals on a pre-tax basis to help them “catch up” so to speak on their efforts to save.

Under the Senate’s earlier proposal, individuals making $500,000 or more would not be able to take advantage of the catch-up provision. This would impart a “means-based” testing system.

On November 13, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch proposed some additional tweaks to the Senate proposal, namely in the area of the catch-up provisions. As a means-based testing system could be problematic for a number of reasons, we were pleased to see Hatch’s revised proposal did not contain it.

His subsequent proposal would require all catch-up contributions to section 401(k), 403(b) and 457(b) plans be made on an after-tax basis—that is, as Roth plans.

The carrot, if you will, is that the current $6,000 catch-up contribution limit would be raised to $9,000. Keep in mind, everyone, including those older than 50, would continue to be eligible to make pre-tax contributions of up to $18,500 a year. These changes would only apply to the additional catch-up amounts for those over age 50.

Hatch has since released further modifications removing the means testing catch-up contributions.

The process is ongoing, and we’ll be watching carefully for further revisions and developments.

As we wait for any further iterations of tax legislation impacting retirement plans, we have joined a coalition of industry partners with one request to Congress: Save our Savings!

Today’s Employer-Based Retirement System is Working

The convenience of being able to contribute directly to an employer-sponsored retirement plan through payroll deduction makes it easy for millions of Americans to save.

In fact, 80 percent of households who have a retirement account say its tax treatment is a big incentive to contribute, and about 90 percent of households oppose both taking away the tax advantages and reducing the amount individuals can contribute to accounts.

Franklin Templeton’s 2017 US Retirement Income Strategies and Expectations (RISE) survey confirmed the importance of these vehicles.  The annual RISE survey aims to gauge individuals’ attitudes toward preparedness for the future.

The findings revealed that employer-sponsored retirement plans are most likely to be considered the primary source of retirement income. The Gen X (41 percent) and Millennial (35 percent) generations are most likely to say a current 401k, 403b or 457 plan is part of their strategy. That is why it’s so important that we continue to encourage people to save—and continue to offer incentives to do so.

It’s our view that any proposed legislative changes must be made with the exclusive goal of making the population as a whole better prepared. The debate around some of the proposed changes to the retirement system doesn’t accomplish this, in our opinion—they appear to be more about budget accounting and when taxes are collected.

We strongly believe those are not the reasons to make changes to the retirement system we have in place today, a system that, while not perfect, has been working for millions of Americans.

While we understand the difficulty legislators face, our focus is on retirement. We think about whether these changes will improve participation and savings, and offer access to the tools people need to secure.

And, Retirement Plans Help the Economy Too

Not only do retirement plans help individuals, they also have an economic impact. At the end of 2016, US retirement assets totaled $26.6 trillion in the equity and fixed income markets. These contributions help make our capital markets the largest and most liquid in the world, giving businesses the necessary funds to create more goods and services.

Lawmakers today can help preserve, enhance, and expand the system that’s benefited millions of Americans.

Hopes and Fears

Most of us have dreams about what our ideal retirement will be—and our RISE survey revealed most are looking forward to it. This year’s survey also revealed more investors felt their retirement would be “much better” than previous generations—Millennials surveyed were 2.5 times more like than GenXers to feel this way.

However, the majority of respondents (53 percent) expressed concern about not achieving their long-term investment goals.

It is clear that many people will need to supplement Social Security. That is why it’s so important that we continue to encourage people to save—and continue to offer incentives to do so.

We expect there to be more change as this process continues to move forward in Congress. There will no doubt be a lot of back and forth on issues that have nothing to do with retirement. But what we’d like to emphasize is that if we are going to change the retirement system, those changes should be done with the exclusive goal of improving retirement readiness for all US citizens.

Yaqub Ahmed is senior vice president and head of defined contribution – US with Franklin Templeton Investments. Drew Carrington, CFA, is head of institutional defined contribution and Michael Doshier is vice president of Retirement Marketing with Franklin Templeton Investments.

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