Sen. Orrin Hatch calls for retirement savings legislation

Tax incentives for retirement plan sponsors and participants are “under increasing pressure” on Capitol Hill to be reduced, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, told the Financial Services Roundtable in Washington on Monday.

Speaking at the global retirement conference, Sen. Hatch, who becomes chairman of the Senate Finance Committee in January, said as the new Congress takes up tax reform, proposals to limit the tax deduction for retirement savings will be floated, despite being “in my view, downright foolish and stupid,” he said. “I am concerned that retirement policy is yet another front of the political gamesmanship.”

Mr. Hatch said he hopes to advance legislation he introduced this year that would expand the use of multiple employer plans, allow public defined benefit plans to purchase private annuities, and create a “starter 401(k) plan” for small private-sector employers. The proposed Secure Annuities for Employee (or SAFE) Retirement Act “is an idea whose time has come,” he said.

Hazel Bradford writes for Pensions & Investments, a sister publication of Business Insurance.