Sponsors (16)
Introduced March 11, 2025 by Lauren Underwood · Last progress March 11, 2025
This bill strengthens spouses' legal protections and expands federally funded education and assistance (especially for women and low-income survivors) to protect retirement savings, at the cost of recurring federal expenditures, new employer compliance burdens, potential delays in access to funds, and the risk that smaller community groups may be left out or resources underutilized.
Married participants and surviving spouses (especially women and middle-class families) gain stronger spousal protections: required written/spelled-out spousal consent procedures plus a private right to sue to prevent improper distributions and protect spouses' retirement shares.
Low-income women, survivors of domestic violence, and other vulnerable people will get funded, paid assistance (including QDRO preparation/enforcement) and federal grants to help secure retirement and pension benefits.
Community-based organizations and nonprofits gain predictable federal funding (authorizes roughly $100M/year and minimum grant awards) to expand outreach, counseling, and retirement education for women in local communities.
Taxpayers face an ongoing cost of about $100 million per year to fund the grant and assistance programs, which could crowd out other priorities or require budget offsets.
Employers, plan sponsors, and administrators will incur new administrative and compliance costs (consent procedures, witnessing, recordkeeping, plan amendments, retroactive documentation) that raise plan complexity and operating expenses.
Participants who urgently need funds could face delays or denial of timely access if spousal consent cannot be obtained within the required consent period or exceptions are hard to prove.
Based on analysis of 7 sections of legislative text.
Requires most defined contribution (individual account) retirement plans to obtain a signed, informed spousal consent before allowing distributions or rollovers, with narrow exceptions, and creates an enforcement right for individuals. Adds a parallel tax-code condition for qualified trusts. Requires retirement product offers to include a link to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau resources. Establishes two competitive grant programs run by the Department of Labor—to boost financial literacy for working‑age and retired women and to help low‑income women and survivors of domestic violence obtain and implement qualified domestic relations orders (QDROs)—and authorizes $100 million per year for each program beginning in fiscal year 2026. The spousal-consent rules and tax changes apply to distributions and rollovers in plan years beginning one year after enactment, with special remedial rules for plan amendments made within three years.