John Iekel

Falls Church

Senior Writer at ASPPA

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Articles

Maine Retirement Savings Program Expansion Advancing

1 week ago | ntsa-net.org | John Iekel

The Maine Retirement Savings Program is one step closer to having an expanded reach. A variety of parties have weighed in on the merits and possible results of enactment as legislation that would accomplish that advances. An employer with five or more employees must register with the Maine Retirement Savings Program if it does not offer a retirement plan itself. However, legislation introduced in both chambers of the Maine legislature would lower that threshold to greater than three employees.
Expansion of Maine Retirement Savings Program Inches Forward

1 week ago | asppa-net.org | John Iekel

The reach of the Maine Retirement Savings Program is one step closer to expanding. And as legislation that would accomplish that advances, a variety of parties have weighed in on the merits and possible results if the measure is enacted. An employer with five or more employees must register with the Maine Retirement Savings Program if it does not offer a retirement plan itself.
Massachusetts Ponders Secure Choice…Again

1 week ago | asppa-net.org | John Iekel

The Massachusetts legislature may take another crack at establishing a Secure Choice program. Legislation has been considered before that would have established a state-run program to provide retirement plan coverage to employees of private-sector employers that do not; however, it has not ended up being enacted. But legislation is now before the legislature once again that would create such a program.
WEP, GPO, and the Social Security Fairness Act

1 week ago | asppa-net.org | John Iekel

With the dawn of the new year, the Social Security Fairness Act also came into being. But there’s more to it than what meets the eye — or at least, more than what its title suggests. The SSFA was enacted on Jan. 5. To achieve that fairness, it repeals the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO). The law is applicable to monthly benefits payable in or after 2024.
IRS Unveils Modest Increase to 2026 HSA Limits

1 week ago | napa-net.org | John Iekel

The IRS has announced a modest increase for the health savings account and high-deductible health plan limits for 2026. The announcement came in IRS Revenue Procedure (Rev. Proc.) 2025-19, which the IRS issued on May 1. The HSA limits for 2026 are higher than those the IRS set for 2025; however, the increase is less than that from 2024 to 2025 and much less than the increase from 2023 to 2024.
Opt-Out One Step Closer for Hawaii Retirement Savings Program

1 week ago | asppa-net.org | John Iekel

The Aloha State’s program that provides retirement plan coverage to employees whose private-sector employers do not had a unique feature when it was established — but that appears to be about to change. The Hawaii Retirement Savings Program when it was enacted was unique in that it required employees of covered employers to opt in if they wanted to participate.
PBGC Claims and Trusteeship: A DB Rollercoaster

1 week ago | asppa-net.org | John Iekel

Trusteeship of plans and claims with which the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) is involved for the most part alternatively rise and then fall and then rise again only to fall the next year. That rollercoaster has held ever since 2015. But for the most recent year, at least, there’s good news regarding the number of plans for which the PBGC served as trustee under the Single-Employer program.
Massachusetts House Ponders Secure Choice; Hawaii Advances Opt-Out

2 weeks ago | ntsa-net.org | John Iekel

Massachusetts and Hawaii could not be more disparate geographically, yet nonetheless they share a distinction — the legislatures of both have been hard at work on providing retirement plan coverage to employees of private-sector employers that do not. The Bay State The fiscal year 2026 budget bill in Massachusetts includes a provision that would create Massachusetts Secure Choice. More precisely, Amendment E to the bill would do so.
Montana, Rhode Island Acting to Boost Teacher Access to Retirement Funds

2 weeks ago | ntsa-net.org | John Iekel

David and Goliath: Montana and Rhode Island could not be more disparate in size, and terrain too, for that matter. But the odd couple shares one thing right now — in their own ways, both are acting to make retirement plan funds more available for teachers. Big Sky CountryMontana Gov.
Lifetime Income: Antidote for Worry About Retirement Security

2 weeks ago | asppa-net.org | John Iekel

There is much trepidation about retirement preparedness, among plan sponsors and the participants in the plans they provide alike. But industry experts in a recent webinar suggested an antidote — measures to produce lifetime income.