Retirees Win One on Capitol Hill

In late December, it was certainly a step in the right direction!

The Secure Act 2.0 was signed into law in the final days of 2022 and is widely anticipated to have positive impact for retirees and the future protection of our retirement assets.

President Joe Biden signing Omnibus Legislation into law on December 29, 2022.

What does this mean for retirees? It means potentially stronger protections against pension de-risking, including:

• A review of the U.S. Pension Plan reporting and disclosure requirements by the Department of Labor; and
• A review of the existing federal Interpretive Bulletin regarding Pension Risk Transfers.

As a result of the Secure Act 2.0, these reviews will hopefully shed a very necessary light on the dangers of pension de-risking which has exceeded a quarter trillion dollars in the last decade alone. Association counsel and Retirees for Justice Executive Director, Edward Stone, provides greater detail on page 4.

The road to the Secure Act 2.0 was a long one. Portions of this bill were brought to Congress by Representative Frank Mrvan (IN-D) and Senator Chris Murphy (CT-D), that your Association of BellTel Retirees and Retirees for Justice team advocated for.

That legislation was then later rolled into and strengthened by the federal Rise and Shine Act legislation, and then finally absorbed into the Secure Act 2.0!

Every step of the way the Retirees for Justice team was working to ensure that through all these changes, what matters most remains, that our pension assets won’t be forgotten and will be protected.

Now, we hope the Secure Act 2.0 positions retirees to be in an even better place in 2023 and beyond.