SECURE 2.0 Act—Cheat Sheet
Summary and effective dates of key provisions applicable to workplace plans

WHAT HAPPENED

On December 29, 2022, President Biden signed into law the “Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023,” which included a major package of retirement savings provisions known as “SECURE 2.0 Act”.

As expected, the final package contained many of the same provisions included in the U.S. House and Senate bills that were previously considered.

POTENTIAL IMPACT

The SECURE 2.0 Act is a meaningful step for the retirement security of all Americans to help improve individuals’ ability to save for retirement, expand access to retirement plans, and ease plan administration for employers.

HIGHLIGHTS

Highlights of the SECURE 2.0 Act include:

  • Enables matching contributions for student loan payments
  • Enables plans to include emergency savings accounts
  • Encourages automatic enrollment and automatic contribution increases
  • Increases catch-up contribution limit
  • Permits older workers to save more and stay invested longer
  • Simplifies disclosures
  • Provides new and enhanced credits for small businesses sponsoring plans

See the following for a summary of key provisions effective each year.

OUR COMMITMENT

In our annual T. Rowe Price U.S. Retirement Market Outlook, we specifically discussed how legislators can help address three themes shaping the retirement industry and supported many of the proposed SECURE 2.0 Act provisions as advancing retirement security.

We will continue to closely monitor the impact of the SECURE 2.0 Act and work with institutions, employers, and financial professionals to help individuals achieve their best retirement outcomes.

We also recognize that more retirement legislation can and should be done, and we look forward to continuing to help influence legislators and policymakers in the future. In addition, we will be working with regulators as they propose rules to implement the SECURE 2.0 Act.

Key Provisions

 

Provisions Effective by January 1, 2023
SectionDescriptionEffective Date
Section 102
Modification of credit for small employer pension plan startup costs
Increases the startup credit from 50% to 100% for employers with up to 50 employees. Additional credit provided based on employer contribution.Taxable years beginning after December 31, 2022
Section 107
Increase in age for required beginning date for mandatory distributions
Increases the required minimum distribution (RMD) age to 73 starting on January 1, 2023, and to 75 starting on January 1, 2033.January 1, 2023 and January 1, 2033
Section 112
Military spouse retirement plan eligibility credit for small employers
Provides small employers a tax credit with respect to their defined contribution plans if they allow military spouses to participate with certain requirements.Taxable years beginning after December 29, 2022
Section 113
Small immediate financial incentives for contributing to a plan
Enables employers to offer de minimis financial incentives, not paid for with plan assets, such as low-dollar gift cards, to boost employee participation in workplace retirement plans.Plan years beginning after December 29, 2022
Section 128
Enhancement of 403(b) plans
Changes tax laws to allow 403(b) custodial accounts to participate in collective investment trusts. NOTE: The needed securities law provisions were not included.Effective after December 29, 2022
Section 201
Remove required minimum distribution barriers of life annuities
Eliminates certain barriers to the availability of life annuities in qualified plans and IRAs that arise under current law due to an actuarial test in the RMD regulations.Calendar years ending after December 29, 2022
Section 202
Qualifying longevity annuity contracts (QLAC)
Repeals the 25% limit and allows up to $200,000 (indexed) to be used from an account balance to purchase a QLAC.Effective for contracts purchased or received in an exchange on or after December 29, 2022
Section 301
Recovery of retirement plan overpayments
Allows retirement plan fiduciaries the latitude to decide not to recoup overpayments that were mistakenly made to participants, including retirees. Certain overpayments may also be treated as eligible rollover distributions.Effective December 29, 2022
Section 302
Reduction in excise tax on certain accumulations in qualified retirement plans
Reduces the penalty for failure to take RMDs from 50% to 25%, with a further reduction to 10% if the RMD failure is corrected in a timely manner.Taxable years beginning after December 29, 2022
Section 305
Expansion of Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (EPCRS)
Expands EPCRS to (1) allow inadvertent errors to be self-corrected within a “reasonable time” and (2) apply to inadvertent IRA errors.Effective December 29, 2022
Any required guidance shall be promulgated no later than two years after the date of enactment of this act
Section 306
Eliminate the “first day of the month” requirement for governmental Section 457(b) plans
Allows participants in governmental 457(b) plans to change their deferral rate at any time, i.e., it is no longer necessary to request a deferral change prior to the beginning of the month in which the deferral was made.Taxable years beginning after December 29, 2022
Section 311
Repayment of qualified birth or adoption distribution (QBAD) limited to three years
Amends the QBAD provision to restrict the recontribution period to three years for distributions made after enactment and to January 1, 2026, for distributions made prior to enactment.Distributions made after December 29, 2022, and retroactively to effective date of the original SECURE Act for distributions prior to enactment
Section 312
Employer may rely on employee certifying that deemed hardship distribution conditions are met
Allows employees to self-certify that they have had an event that constitutes a hardship or unforeseeable emergency for purposes of taking a hardship or unforeseeable emergency withdrawal.Plan years beginning after December 29, 2022
Section 318
Performance benchmarks for asset allocation funds
Directs the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to update the fee and investment disclosure regulations within two years after the date of enactment so that investments that use a mix of asset classes, such as target date investments, can be benchmarked against a blend of broad-based securities market indices.Effective December 29, 2022
Section 320
Eliminating unnecessary plan requirements related to unenrolled participants
Eliminates requirement for employers to provide certain annual ERISA or code notices to unenrolled participants who have not elected to participate in a workplace retirement plan provided they receive disclosures initially and a subsequent annual reminder of the right to enroll.Plan years beginning after December 31, 2022
Section 331
Special rules for use of retirement funds in connection with qualified federally declared disasters
Provides permanent rules relating to the use of retirement funds in the case of a federally declared disaster.Disasters occurring on or after January 26, 2021
Section 601
SIMPLE and SEP Roth IRAs
Allows SIMPLE IRAs to accept Roth contributions. Also allows employers to offer employees the ability to treat employee and employer SEP contributions as Roth (in whole or in part).Taxable years beginning after December 31, 2022
Section 604
Optional treatment of employer matching or nonelective contributions as Roth contributions
Allows defined contribution plans to provide participants with the option of receiving matching and qualified nonelective contributions on a Roth basis.Effective for contributions made after December 29, 2022

 

Provisions Effective by January 1, 2024
SectionDescriptionEffective Date
Section 110
Student loan matching
Permits an employer to make matching contributions under a 401(k) plan, 403(b) plan, governmental 457(b) plan, or SIMPLE IRA with respect to “qualified student loan payments.”Plan years beginning after December 31, 2023
Section 115
Penalty-free withdrawals for certain emergency expenses
Provides an exception to the early withdrawal penalty for distributions up to $1,000 annually used for emergency expenses. A taxpayer has the option to repay the distribution within three years.Distributions made after December 31, 2023
Section 117
Contribution limit for SIMPLE plans
Increases the annual deferral limit and the catch-up contribution limit at age 50 by 10% in SIMPLE IRAs, as compared with the limit that would otherwise apply in the first year this change is effective. Employees with 26 to 100 employees: Employers permitted to provide higher deferral limits, but only if the employer either provides a 4% matching contribution or a 3% employer contribution. Makes similar changes to contribution limits for SIMPLE 401(k) plans.Taxable years beginning after December 31, 2023
Section 120
Prohibited transaction exemption for certain automatic portability transactions
Permits a retirement plan service provider to provide employer plans with automatic portability services. Such services involve the automatic transfer of a participant’s default IRA (established in connection with a distribution from a former employer’s plan) into the participant’s new employer’s retirement plan, unless the participant affirmatively elects otherwise.Effective for transactions occurring on or after December 29, 2023 (12 months after enactment)
Section 121
Starter 401(k) plans for employers with no retirement plan
Permits an employer that does not sponsor a retirement plan to offer a starter 401(k) plan (or safe harbor 403(b) plan) with simplified requirements and lower contribution limits.Plan years beginning after December 31, 2023
Section 127
Emergency savings accounts linked to individual account plans
Provides employers the option to offer to their non-highly compensated employees’ pension-linked emergency savings accounts. Contributions are treated as Roth and are prohibited once the account balance meets or exceeds $2,500 (indexed). Auto-enrollment and match are permitted, subject to conditions.Plan years beginning after December 31, 2023
Section 304
Updating dollar limit for mandatory distributions
Increases the amount that plans can require to be distributed without consent from $5,000 to $7,000.Distributions made after December 31, 2023
Section 314
Penalty-free withdrawals for victims of domestic abuse
Allows retirement plans to permit participants that self-certify that they experienced domestic abuse to withdraw up to the lesser of $10,000 indexed (or 50% of the vested balance) within one year of incident without penalty.Distributions made after December 31, 2023
Section 325
Roth plan distribution rules
Eliminates pre-death RMDs from Roth accounts in employer plans.Taxable years beginning after December 31, 2023. (Note: Change does not apply to distributions required with respect to years beginning before January 1, 2024, but payable on or after such date.)
Section 602
Hardship withdrawal rules for 403(b) plans
Conforms the hardship rules for 403(b) plans to those for 401(k) plansPlan years beginning after December 31, 2023
Section 603
Elective deferrals generally limited to regular contribution limit
Provides that all catch-up contributions to qualified retirement plans are subject to Roth tax treatment. An exception is provided for employees with wages of $145,000 or less (indexed) in the prior year.Taxable years beginning after December 31, 2023

 

Provisions Effective by January 1, 2025
SectionDescriptionEffective Date
Section 101
Expanding automatic enrollment in retirement plans
Requires auto‑enrollment and auto‑escalation for all 401(k) and 403(b) plans (with certain exceptions for collective bargaining plans, church plans, and governmental plans, as well as plans established on or before December 29, 2022).  The initial automatic enrollment amount is at least 3% but not more than 10%. Each year thereafter, that amount is increased by 1% until it reaches at least 10%, but not more than 15%.Plan years beginning after December 31, 2024
Section 109
Higher catch-up limit to apply at ages 60, 61, 62, and 63
Increases catch-up limits to the greater of $10,000 ($5,000 for SIMPLE plans) or 50% more than the regular catch-up amount in 2025 for individuals who have attained ages 60, 61, 62, and 63. The increased amounts are indexed for inflation after 2025.Taxable years beginning after December 31, 2024
Section 125
Improving coverage for part-time workers
Reduces to two years (from three years) the requirement to allow long-term, part-time workers to participate in employers’ 401(k) plans and extends these rules to ERISA-covered 403(b) plans.Plan years beginning after December 31, 2024
Section 303
Retirement savings lost and found
Requires DOL to create and administer a national online searchable lost and found database for Americans’ retirement plans; requires plan administrators to provide annual reporting of disposition of balances for vested terminated participants.Directs the creation of the database no later than two years after the date of enactment of this act

 

Provisions Effective by January 1, 2026
SectionDescriptionEffective Date
Section 338
Requirement to provide paper statements in certain cases
Amends ERISA to generally provide that, with respect to defined contribution plans, unless a participant elects otherwise, the plan is required to provide a paper benefit statement at least once annually.Plan years beginning after December 31, 2025

 

Provisions Effective by January 1, 2027
SectionDescriptionEffective Date
Section 103
Saver’s Match
Changes the saver’s credit (applicable to tax obligations) to a federal “match” deposited into a taxpayer’s IRA or retirement plan that accepts such contributions; increases eligibility for the saver’s match.Taxable years beginning after December 31, 2026

QUESTIONS

Please contact your T. Rowe Price representative with questions about the key provisions in this cheat sheet or any other provisions included in the SECURE 2.0 Act.

Retirement Is at the Heart of What We Do
Founded in 1937 and headquartered in Baltimore, MD, T. Rowe Price delivers investment excellence and retirement services for institutions, intermediaries, and individual investors. Two‑thirds of our assets under management are in retirement, and one‑quarter of our assets are in target date funds. We have over 40 years’ experience as a recordkeeper, and we support over 7,600 retirement plans and over 2.2 million participants, as of December 31, 2022. We have veteran industry experts across the retirement spectrum, as well as dedicated retirement public policy experts who are closely engaged with legislators, regulators, and policy influencers.

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Note: Effective dates generally apply to taxable years or plan years, as applicable, beginning on or after the listed dates. Variations are noted in the effective date column.

Important Information

This material is provided for general and educational purposes only and is not intended to provide legal, tax, or investment advice. This material does not provide recommendations concerning investments, investment strategies, or account types; it is not individualized to the needs of any specific investor and not intended to suggest any particular investment action is appropriate for you, nor is it intended to serve as the primary basis for investment decision‑making.

Any tax‑related discussion contained in this material, including any attachments/links, is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding any tax penalties or (ii) promoting, marketing, or recommending to any other party any transaction or matter addressed herein. Please consult your independent legal counsel and/or tax professional regarding any legal or tax issues raised in this material. 

The views contained herein are as of the date written and are subject to change without notice; these views may differ from those of other T. Rowe Price associates.

This information is not intended to reflect a current or past recommendation concerning investments, investment strategies, or account types; advice of any kind; or a solicitation of an offer to buy or sell any securities or investment services. The opinions and commentary provided do not take into account the investment objectives or financial situation of any particular investor or class of investor. Please consider your own circumstances before making an investment decision. 

Information contained herein is based upon sources we consider to be reliable; we do not, however, guarantee its accuracy.

Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. All investments are subject to market risk, including the possible loss of principal. All charts and tables are shown for illustrative purposes only.

T. Rowe Price Investment Services, Inc., distributor, and T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., investment adviser. 

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