A longer version of this article originally appeared on AdvisorOne's sister site, BenefitsPro.com.
A new Senate resolution that recognizes the long-term importance of tax-deferral incentives for retirement savings—"low-hanging fruit" in this time of 11th-hour fiscal cliff budgetary wrangling— is making the rounds in Washington, with some extra support from the the independent broker-dealer association, the FSI.
Senator Max Baucus, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, and the committee's ranking member, Orrin Hatch, have both been praised by the Financial Services Institute for Senate Concurrent Resolution 62, which asks that the positives of tax deferral present in plans from 401(k)s to private pension plans be thoroughly considered before being hastily included as a possible revenue source in the ongoing financial crisis.
The resolution, a "Sense of Congress" statement, reiterates that current tax incentives for retirement savings do indeed provide important benefits for Americans, as well as actually providing the impetus for workers to help prepare for their own retirement – in the absence of any other nationalized retirement or pension plan, other than Social Security.