Biden signs $1.7T government spending bill, big changes to the retirement system are included

Earlier today, President Biden signed the omnibus spending bill into law, extending funds for the government into next year. The massive 4,155-page legislation includes a range of significant reforms aimed to help Americans save more for retirement.

Some measures include increasing the age for required minimum distributions from retirement plans to encouraging younger people save more earlier in life, and pushing businesses to get more employees enrolled in plans with automatic enrollment in retirement plans. The plan also includes a novel idea of treating student loans as deferrals for the purposes of retirement savings and a similar provision which could link retirement and emergency savings in the years ahead.

The legislation is a follow up to 2019’s SECURE Act, which represented the first major retirement legislation since 2006. However, it does not address the challenge of Social Security, which is projected to run out as early as 2034. 

For more information see Ben Werschkul “‘Big Changes to the Retirement System are included in Congress’s end-of-year bill’”, Yahoo! Finance, December 20, 2022 and Tal Axelrod “Biden signs $1.7T government spending bill, ensuring funding for most of 2023”, ABC News, December 29, 2022.

Special thanks to David S. Luber (Florida Probate Attorney) for bringing this to my attention.

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/trusts_estates_prof/2022/12/biden-signs-17t-government-spending-bill-big-changes-to-the-retirement-system-are-included.html