Increasing Small Business Retirement Choices Act

Retirement plan sponsors engage advisors to assist in administering their retirement plans. Such advisors and other service providers are paid via monthly or annual retainers to advise on plan administration or the investment fund lineup. Such retainers are charged to the retirement plan.

Other, incidental expenses incurred related to plan design, may not be charged to the plan because they are deemed settlor functions. For example, if a plan sponsor were to inquire about a beneficial plan design feature, such as automatic enrollment and reenrollment or automatic escalation, the advisor or other service provider would bill the employer a separate amount that could not be charged back to the plan. Because these inquires result in additional costs, many employers—especially small employers—choose to forego these incidental plan design features, even when they might generate tremendous benefits for their employees.

According to the 2021 Plan Sponsor Council of America’s Annual Survey of Profit Sharing and 401(k) Plans, only 30.5 percent of employers with fewer than 50 workers have an automatic enrollment feature in their retirement plan, compared to over 77 percent of employers with more than 1,000 workers. Small employers need additional resources to improve their retirement plan design.

Plan assets— Section 403(c)(1) of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (29 U.S.C. 1103(c)(1)) is amended by inserting “(including incidental expenses solely for the benefit of the participants and their beneficiaries)” before the period.

Fiduciary standard of care— Section 404(a)(1)(A)(ii) of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (29 U.S.C. 1104(a)(1)(A)(ii)) is amended by inserting “(including incidental expenses solely for the benefit of the participants and their beneficiaries)” before the semicolon.