Biden Signs $1.7T Spending Bill, Brings Secure 2.0 to Life

President Joe Biden signed the bill that includes the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (Secure) 2.0 Act of 2022 Thursday.

The main part of the bill that carried the Secure 2.0 legislation through Congress, H.R. 2617, provides the funding needed to keep the federal government running, or about $1.7 trillion in spending appropriations and authorizations.

The Secure 2.0 section includes sections that could lead to big changes for financial advisors, retirement plan sponsors, retirement plan administrations and life insurance agents who sell annuities.

Secure 2.0 provisions could:

Encourage more employers to set up retirement plans and enroll workers in the plans automatically.
Increase the age when clients must start taking required minimum distributions from individual retirement accounts and defined contribution retirement plans.
Help workers use income annuities to convert part of their retirement plan assets into streams of benefit payments that will last a lifetime.
Create options for employers that want to offer workers emergency savings plans.
Make it easier for workers affected by natural disasters or domestic violence to take cash out of retirement plans.

Some Secure 2.0 provisions took effect the day the president signed the bill.