Sponsors (16)
The bill strengthens spousal protections, retirement education, and support for women and survivors—but does so by imposing new compliance and administrative costs, increasing federal spending, and creating risks that small providers and some participants could be left behind or delayed in accessing benefits.
Spouses (especially married middle-class families) gain stronger protection against unilateral depletion of a partner's defined‑contribution account because many distributions will generally require written, witnessed spousal consent and plans must provide clear written explanations of participant and spouse rights.
Women (working-age and retired), seniors, and other consumers get expanded retirement education and counseling plus standardized access to CFPB guidance linked from retirement-product offers, backed by new federal grants to local organizations to improve retirement readiness.
Low-income women and survivors of domestic violence (and many families after divorce) get targeted help to obtain and enforce QDROs and preserve retirement benefits, with new federal funding for community-based organizations to expand services.
Employers, plan administrators, and participants face significant new administrative and compliance costs (including witnessing/verification, notices, and processing) and plans face higher litigation risk from the new private right of action, which may increase plan fees or reduce plan offerings.
Some participants could be delayed or blocked from accessing their own retirement funds because spousal‑consent requirements and narrow exceptions require proof and plan‑administrator approval.
Authorizing $100 million per year for grant programs increases federal spending and could add to budgetary pressures or require offsets paid by taxpayers.
Based on analysis of 7 sections of legislative text.
Requires spousal consent for many defined-contribution plan distributions, mandates CFPB links on retirement product offers, and funds grants for women’s financial literacy and QDRO help.
Introduced March 11, 2025 by Lauren Underwood · Last progress March 11, 2025
Requires many defined-contribution (individual account) retirement plans to obtain written, witnessed spousal consent before making distributions or certain rollovers, with limited exceptions and an individual right to sue for violations. Also requires retirement product offers to include an easy link to CFPB consumer materials and funds two new competitive grant programs (financial literacy/outreach and QDRO assistance) administered by the Department of Labor’s Women’s Bureau, each with $100 million authorized per year starting in FY2026.