Senators Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Richard Burr, R-N.C., introduced the Retirement Improvement and Savings Enhancement to Supplement Healthy Investments for the Nest Egg (RISE & SHINE) Act on Tuesday.
“It bolsters savings by allowing employers to offer emergency savings accounts.”
The legislation aims to “strengthen people’s emergency savings and retirement security.” They also announced that the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee would be marking up the legislation next week at an executive session.
“The COVID pandemic upended our economy—and with it, the finances of millions of families in Washington state and across the country,” Murray said in a statement. “We need to do everything we can to help people get on solid financial footing—which is why I’m working to lower families’ costs, and on bipartisan legislation to help people save for their futures.”
“Financial planning has never been more important as Americans continue to face historic inflation on gas, groceries, and other everyday essentials,” Burr added. “That’s why I’m proud to work with Senator Murray on this significant, bipartisan retirement package to ensure current and future retirees have the information and resources they need to optimize savings for their golden years.”
The Senators said they’ve been working with colleagues for months to develop the broad, bipartisan retirement package.
They held a HELP Committee hearing earlier this year focused on improving retirement security and enhancing emergency savings, and released a discussion draft for feedback two weeks ago.
Bill provisions
The RISE & SHINE Act “includes a wide range of policies to create additional protections for workers and retirement savers at all stages of their retirement timelines,” including steps to:
- bolster savings by allowing employers to offer emergency savings accounts;
- expand access to employer-provided retirement plans through multiple employer plans, and through increased access to plans for part-time workers;
- improve communications to retirement plan participants and transparency around lump-sum buyout offers for pension plan participants; and more.
The package builds off legislation in the House—the Securing a Strong Retirement Act of 2021 (SECURE 2.0), and the Retirement Improvement and Savings Enhancement Act (RISE Act)—as well as the Retirement Security & Savings Act introduced by Senators Cardin, D-Md., and Portman, R-Ohio.
THE FULL TEXT OF THE BILL IS FOUND HERE
With more than 20 years serving financial markets, John Sullivan is the former editor-in-chief of Investment Advisor magazine and retirement editor of ThinkAdvisor.com. Sullivan is also the former editor of Boomer Market Advisor and Bank Advisor magazines, and has a background in the insurance and investment industries in addition to his journalism roots.
Senator Murray has also taken an interest in target date fund risk. See https://401kspecialistmag.com/a-response-to-congress-request-for-review-of-target-date-funds/