How will the election affect our industry?
BenefitsPRO.comNovember 11, 2016
On the eve of the election, BenefitsPRO reached out to a couple of industry professionals for their thoughts on how the outcome of today's vote could affect benefits brokers, consultants, HR professionals and retirement advisors. Here's what they had to say.
How could this year's election affect state-sponsored retirement plans, and the federal MyRA plan?
I don’t think the November elections will have much of an impact on either initiative. The MyRA plan has been in place for nearly two years. A Trump administration would have difficulty rolling it back and so would a divided Congress. Same goes for the DOL’s recently adopted rule that permits states to set up auto-IRA programs for the private sector. The rule was effective Oct. 31st, and it would be difficult for Congress to overturn it through legislation. Ditto with the secondary rule proposal by the DOL to allow major cities and counties to set up similar programs if a state hasn’t adopted a program.
The state-sponsored retirement plans for the private sector are already underway, with six states having enacted laws authorizing the programs, and more than half of the state legislatures having considered similar programs over the last four years. In the absence of congressional action on proposals for automatic-deposit IRAs run by a federal agency, it is likely we’ll continue to see more initiatives on the state level. That is clearly a trend, although it’s highly unlikely you’ll see a tsunami wave come out of this. Read More.
