What Might Make SECURE 3.0—and How Advisor Input is Influencing the Next Big Retirement Bill

Brian Anderson

3 hours ago

NAPA Summit Mayo and Oppenheimer discuss SECURE 3.0

While this year might not see a lot of movement for retirement legislation, American Retirement Association CEO Brian Graff told 2026 NAPA 401(k) Summit attendees this week in Tampa that 2027 is already shaping up to be a different animal—thanks in large part to what could again become a divided Congress following this November’s midterm elections.

And with so much at stake for the workplace retirement plan industry, he urged NAPA members to become involved—or more involved—as behind-the-scenes work on crafting SECURE 3.0 ramps up.

“Going into next year there’s going to be a tremendous amount of retirement policy in the mix. This is the time—if you’ve ever thought about being involved—to get involved,” Graff said during Sunday’s opening general session.

“Next year your business, your practice is in the mix, and to some degree in the crosshairs. The best way to make sure that whatever they do does the least amount of harm is to be involved,” he added. “We’re good at what we do, but the reason we’re good is because we have you guys behind us, so please help. We both together can make sure the system continues to work to help Americans save.”

Sunday’s opening general session wrapped up with Graff discussing what might be included in an expected SECURE 3.0 package with ARA Chief of Regulatory Affairs Kelsey Mayo and ARA Senior Director of Federal Legislative Affairs Josh Oppenheimer.

The trio explained the importance of input from NAPA members in helping them decide what to prioritize when advocating for specific areas of legislation and what they believe—at this point—belongs in SECURE 3.0, which has a decent chance of coming together before the end of 2028.

“We are looking for NAPA members to tell us—where are the pain points? What would make the industry better? What matters to your clients?” Mayo said.

“Members of Congress are looking to us, and we’re looking to you. What should retirement policy be?” Oppenheimer added.

“We are building a SECURE 3.0 from the ground up, and it is thanks to you all in the room for giving us these really good ideas.”
Josh Oppenheimer

Graff said the challenge for the industry is that some of the primary goals already being brought up on Capitol Hill—such as universal auto-enrollment and a significant expansion of the Saver’s Match—is very expensive. He noted that SECURE 2.0—the biggest by far to date—cost in the neighborhood of $40 billion. In 3.0, just those two provisions—universal auto enrollment and expansion of the Saver’s Match—could cost up to $120 billion, which would be three times the size of SECURE 2.0.

“Finding the pay-fors for something that big is going to be a stress point for all of us and all of you, because they are going to first look to the system as a way to pay for it,” Graff said. “We’re going to have to fight to protect all the good stuff that we’ve done over the last several pieces of legislation.”

Oppenheimer noted how ARA’s strategy of advocating for bipartisan, bicameral bill introductions on priorities that come to light from member input has been effective.

“We are building a SECURE 3.0 from the ground up, and it is thanks to you all in the room for giving us these really good ideas,” Oppenheimer said. “I can go into a Democrat office or into a Republican office, use the same what we call ‘one-pagers’ and these staffers get it. They understand that this is good policy, and we’re not here to play politics.”

SECURE 3.0 policy initiatives

During Sunday’s session, Mayo and Oppenheimer broke down ARA and NAPA’s policy initiatives for building SECURE 3.0 into four related buckets: Expanding access to retirement plans; easing administration of retirement plans; ensuring parity across solutions; and empowering participants to save.

What follows is a brief summary of each, based on information from Sunday’s presentation and background of some of the bills under consideration.

EDITOR’S NOTE: 401(k) Specialist added some links to additional information about specific bills, as well as some additional background in addition to what was provided during Sunday’s NAPA Summit presentation.

Expanding access to retirement plans

• RISE/START Act – increasing minimum start-up tax credit; allowing claiming by retirement plan provider.

Oppenheimer reiterated that they want to take what has worked in SECURE 2.0 and make it better. The start-up tax credits to encourage small business owners and employers to adopt plans, for example. But for the smallest employers, those tax credits don’t always make financial sense, so the idea with the RISE/START Act is to increase the minimum at which the employer can take the credit. The other idea ARA wants to add to that—after hearing from members—is to allow the plan provider to get the credit.

“It’s a free plan for the employer, and then you submit to the government a form that would allow you to get the tax credit for providing the plan to that new business,” Graff said.

• Retirement Rollover Flexibility Act – reintroduced in Dec. 2025 by Darin LaHood (R-IL) and Linda Sánchez (D-CA) in the House of Representatives, along with Sens. John Barrasso (R-WY) and Michael Bennet (D-CO) in the Senate, the bipartisan, bicameral legislation would let retirement savers roll over Roth IRAs to a Roth account within a workplace retirement plan, like Roth 401(k), Roth 403(b), and Roth 457(b) plans.

Mayo explained that this issue has grown as Roth usage has increased, alongside developments like mandatory Roth catch-up contributions and auto-portability. Currently, while funds can move from plans to Roth IRAs, they cannot move back, creating fragmentation. This limitation is especially problematic for workers who start saving in state auto-IRA programs and later gain access to a workplace plan—they can’t consolidate those savings.

“So what could have been nice seed money for that plan—they have to start over,” Mayo said. “This would allow Roth IRA money to move back into a 401(k). We’re excited.”

• Helping Young Americans Save for Retirement Act (HR 4718 / S 1707) – Lowering plan eligibility age from 21 to 18; ensuring employers are not penalized for opening plans to young and new hires (proposed).

Easing administration of retirement plans

• Form 5500 Filing Simplification Act (HR 7362) – cutting red tape for employee benefit plan reporting.

As Oppenheimer explained, the deadline for filing Form 5500 is usually at the end of July, but under statute plans have a right to request an extension until mid-October. That extension requires filing a different form, which may or may not be processed correctly—and if not can lead to substantial fines.

“We did the math. In theory a plan could be hit with over $200,000 in penalties, so why not move the deadline back until October 15^th? No more extensions except in case of a hurricane or flood or any other reason the IRS would normally extend the deadline,” Oppenheimer said.

• Retirement Plan Fee Clarity Act – requiring DOL to issue a uniform guide/summary for 408(b)(2) disclosures.

Graff said this was kind of a grassroots idea that came from advisors frustrated with 408(b)(2) disclosures, and actually follows up on the recent DOL rule with respect to requiring a standardized disclosure for pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and self-insured health plans.

“I think they are somewhat supportive of this idea of asking them to create a uniform 408(b)(2) disclosure,” Graff said, which would allow for apple-to-apple comparisons.

• Unclaimed Retirement Rescue Plan Act (HR 5325) – Easing burdens to voluntarily transfer unclaimed accounts to state unclaimed property programs. U.S. Representatives Ron Estes (R-KS) and Seth Magaziner (D-RI) introduced the legislation in Sept. 2025, which will direct the Secretary of Labor to reunite workers with lost retirement funds from 401(k) accounts and IRAs. This error can occur when retirement savings are left behind with employers due to job changes.

Ensuring parity across solutions

• Charity Parity – Allowing direct qualified charitable distributions from 401(k)s and 403(b)s, like IRAs.

Oppenheimer noted that QCDs must currently be made from an individual’s IRA to the eligible charitable organization. “So why don’t we just allow QCDs to be made directly from an employer-sponsored [plan]? This one ensure retirement savers are treated equitably regardless of the type of retirement plan holding their assets.”

• Retirement Plan Merger Parity Act – Expanding tax-free merger and transfer rules to all retirement plan participants.

“This was another idea that came up through NAPA Nation,” Oppenheimer said, adding that it is important to fix the tax code to ensure that there’s a seamless transition.

• Small Nonprofit Retirement Security Act (HR 4548) / (S 2365) – Expanding the same start-up and automatic enrollment credits to tax-exempt strategies. On July 21, 2025, Congressman Vern Buchanan, Vice Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, introduced the bipartisan, bicameral Small Nonprofit Retirement Security Act alongside Reps. Jimmy Panetta (D-CA), Blake Moore (R-UT) and Brad Schneider (D-IL). Senators James Lankford (R-OK) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) introduced companion legislation in the Senate. The bill would help small nonprofit organizations offer retirement plans by extending federal tax incentives currently available only to for-profit employers.

Empowering participants to save

• Auto Re-Enroll Act (S 1831) – Allowing plans to automatically reenroll workers back into the plan at least once every 3 years.

“Currently one in four American workers are not enrolled in their employer sponsored plans and one-third are not taking advantage of their full employer matching contribution,” Oppenheimer said. “To proactively encourage these workers to enroll is absolutely critical, and Senators Bill Cassidy and Tim Caine have introduced a bill to allow and encourage employers to auto-reenroll their workers every 3 years, unless of course the individual affirmatively opts out.”

• OPTIONS Act – Empowering employees with greater control over their employer contributions. U.S. Representatives Greg Steube (R-FL) and Suzan DelBene (D-WA) introduced the Optimizing Participant Tax Incentives through Optional Noncash Selections or OPTIONS Act on April 15, 2026. This bill would clarify existing gaps in the IRS rules governing employer contributions to employee benefit plans.

“So this was a really interesting one,” Mayo said. “Think about all those benefits that your clients are giving participants. They may have an HSA program, they might have HRA, student loan benefits. But not every participant can use those benefits, right? Maybe they already paid off their student loan, maybe they didn’t have loans.”

This bill, she said, would give the employer the ability to provide employees with additional benefit money that can be used where it helps most. “You want to use it for student loans? Great. You don’t have that? Send it to your 401(k),” she said. “We think this is really exciting.”

• Cash Balance and 401(k) Harmonization Act – permitting employer contributions to be provided through a cash balance plan.

Obviously, additional legislation may develop between now and when SECURE 3.0 becomes closer to a reality, but as of now these are the bills and proposals Graff, Mayo and Oppenheimer said this week the association is supporting for inclusion in the next big retirement legislation package.

Noticeably absent is the Retirement Savings for Americans Act, which earlier during the opening general session Graff reiterated that ARA does not support due to the fact that it would provide special benefits for lower-income workers in the federal program, but not those saving in a workplace retirement plan or a state auto-IRA plan.

Unlike RSAA, Graff noted that the Automatic IRA Act has ARA’s support because it treats all lower-income workers the same no matter where they save. So while the RSAA has some bipartisan support (and has been endorsed by AARP), expect ARA to continue to work toward having the Automatic IRA Act included in SECURE 3.0 rather than RSAA.

Getting CITs in 403(b)s done

Graff also took a moment near the end of Sunday’s general session to address the challenges associated with getting legislation over the finish line to finally allow collective investment trusts in 403(b) plans, as they are in 401(k)s.

“Why can’t we get this done? The challenge is, as we’ve discussed before, is this is banking legislation,” Graff said, reminding the NAPA Summit audience that banking committees on Capitol Hill haven’t done any new legislation since Dodd-Frank.

But he did note that a small, bipartisan capital markets reform package could provide a vehicle to finally get CITs into 403(b)s. The INVEST Act passed the House in December, but has not seen movement in the Senate. The legislation bundles more than 20 individual bills aimed at modernizing capital markets, cutting regulatory red tape, facilitating small business financing, and expanding investor access to a broader range of investment options. Included in it is Section 202, the Retirement Fairness for Charities and Educational Institutions Act, which would amend federal securities laws to allow CITs and certain insurance separate accounts in 403(b) plans, aligning them more closely with 401(k) treatment.

“We are really still very much committed to trying to get this done, and we’re as frustrated as you that for whatever reason it hasn’t gotten done,” Graff said. “A lot of it is more to do with finding a vehicle than it is the substance of this rule, but we’re somewhat hopeful that perhaps in a lame duck session that a small capital markets package will move, and that’s what we’re going to be aiming for.”