The SECURE Act 2.0 Auto-Enrollment Mandate is Now Live: IRS Offers Key Guidance

by Prof. Robert Bloink and Prof. William H. Byrnes

The SECURE Act 2.0 contained an automatic enrollment mandate that will impact nearly every new small business retirement plan going forward. Auto-enrollment features have gained significant traction in recent years. Many find that auto-enrollment is highly beneficial when it comes to encouraging all American workers to save for retirement. In fact, some studies show that more than half of all American workers who believed they were contributing to employer-sponsored plans were not contributing at all. Many of those workers thought they had been automatically enrolled. Starting this year, the sweeping federal auto-enrollment provision is effective. The IRS has now proposed regulations that small business owners can use as key guidance in implementing their auto-enrollment features.

SECURE Act 2.0 Auto-Enrollment: Background