Will the Administration’s Executive Order ‘Work’?
Over the coming weeks, a question that you’re likely to see posed (again and again) about the President’s Executive Order is – “will it work?” “Work” in this case means to expand access to workplace retirement plans, for that is the stated policy of the Trump administration in issuing the order . The answer, of course, will depend in no small part on what emerges as a result. While it’s hard to argue with the underlying principle, and even less with the foundational arguments (“Enhancing workplace retirement plan coverage is critical to ensuring that American workers will be financially prepared to retire” and “Regulatory burdens and complexity can be costly and discourage employers, especially small businesses, from offering workplace retirement plans to their employees”), at this point the order is no more than a directive to the Labor and Treasury Departments to consider and recommend some alternatives. That said, the directives are reasonably specific – t...