Updated onJanuary 30, 2026
10 MIN ARTICLE
When President Joe Biden signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act into law in December 2022, it included the bipartisan SECURE 2.0 Act — a sweeping set of retirement provisions designed to strengthen savings and expand access. Many of its provisions are already in effect.
Here are five takeaways from SECURE 2.0 Act that could be most important to your clients today and in the future, along with ways you can help clients take action or start the conversation now.
Perhaps the most exciting part of SECURE 2.0 is it encourages serious long-term saving with more opportunity and time to invest.
Increases to the required minimum distribution (RMD) age. The age at which investors must begin taking withdrawals from IRAs increased. The original SECURE Act moved the required minimum distribution (RMD) age from 70.5 to 72, and SECURE 2.0 raised it to 73 starting in 2023. It is set to rise again to 75 in 2033, giving retirees even more time for the opportunity of tax-deferred growth.
Catch-up contribution limitations bumped up. Catch-up contributions are available to individuals 50 or older and provide a way to maximize savings as you near retirement age. SECURE 2.0 added incentives to save even more. For example, catch-up contributions for IRAs are now adjusted for inflation in increments of $100. In 2026, the catch-up contribution limit is $1,100.
Catch-up contribution maximums for investors ages of 60 and 63 in an employer plan are even higher. In 2026, this so called "super catch-up contribution" is $11,250 above the base limit.
How you can help now: For your clients in their late 60s or early 70s who do not rely on their retirement savings for living expenses, it's a good time to remind them that the increased RMD age could add accumulation years to their plans and to plan accordingly.
Roth IRAs, 401(k)s and 403(b)s continue to grow in popularity among investors looking to minimize the impact of income taxes on future gains. SECURE 2.0 makes these vehicles even more appealing to investors, with a few key changes.
More ways for employees to save for retirement using a Roth. Vested employer contributions are now eligible for Roth treatment. Employers may now offer employees the option have employer contributions (both matching and nonelective) made to employees’ Roth accounts in 401(k) and 403(b) plans. Employer Roth contributions are includable in an employee’s income in the year made.
No lifetime RMDs required from employer plan Roth accounts. Investors with Roth 401(k)s or 403(b)s are no longer required to take lifetime RMDs from those accounts. Distributions for employer Roth accounts are now more in line with traditional Roth IRAs, which do not require withdrawals until after the death of the account owner. As a result, the default move of rolling over a Roth 401(k) to a Roth IRA to avoid RMDs may no longer make sense for many clients.
Roth treatment required for some catch-up contributions. With increased catch-up contribution limits come some additional restrictions for high-earning individuals. As of January 1, 2026, participants age 50 and older who earned more than $150,000 (indexed annually for inflation) in Social Security wages (Form W-2 Box 3) in the prior calendar year from the employer sponsoring the plan must make catch-up contributions as after-tax Roth contributions.
SIMPLE and SEP Roth IRA options added. Small-business owners now have the option to offer Roth versions of Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees (SIMPLE) and Simplified Employee Pension (SEP) IRAs, in addition to traditional versions of those plans. Contributions to Roth SIMPLE and SEP IRAs are included in the employee's income for the year they are made, just like other Roth contributions.
How you can help now: For retirement savers that receive a portion of their compensation through employer contributions, help them start the discovery process to find out if their employer offers this Roth option, how the election will be made, and whether it makes sense for them.
Similar to Roth IRAs, RMDs from a Roth 401(k) or 403(b) do not have to begin before the account owner’s death. Accordingly, if the client does not need to access retirement assets to pay for living expenses, you can discuss with them (and their tax professional) whether it makes sense to take distributions or leave the money in the plan to capture that opportunity for tax-deferred growth.
The SECURE 2.0 Act created a substantial new startup plan tax credit based on contributions the employer makes on behalf of participants, and expanded the existing startup tax credit on employer out-of-pocket plan costs. Together, these tax credits may provide a significant benefit for small businesses that are starting a plan.
The new employer contribution tax credit reimburses small businesses for a portion of the amount of employer contributions made. For smaller plans (those with 50 or fewer employees*), the tax credit starts at 100% of employer contributions made for each employee earning less than $100,000 a year up to $1,000 and phases down over five years from plan adoption (100%, 100%, 75%, 50%, 25%). The tax credit for larger plans (those with 51–100 employees*) also phases down according to the same schedule but is subject to additional reductions. The existing employer plan cost credit has been increased from 50% to 100% of eligible costs for employers with 50 or fewer employees.*
How you can help now: With mandatory state-sponsored retirement programs adopted in 17 states as of January 1, 2026, and under consideration in several more, many small-business owners are exploring plan adoption. For your small-business owner clients that have not yet adopted a plan, particularly for those operating in states that are anticipating mandates, now may be a good time to reach out to let them know about the start-up tax credits.
529-to-Roth rollover option. 529 education plan assets can now be rolled over directly into a Roth IRA for the beneficiary of the 529 plan, within certain limitations. This means clients that are concerned about overfunding 529s can err on the side of contributing more, knowing they’ll be able to access at least a portion of those leftover assets without taxes or penalties. The rollover option may also make 529 accounts more appealing to clients who aren’t sure whether their beneficiaries will use the funds for higher education.
Limitations to this part of this provision include:
The income limitations for regular Roth IRA contributions do not apply to 529-to-Roth rollovers. However, it appears that the beneficiary will be required to have earned income of some kind to qualify for a rollover.
Expansion of qualified charitable distributions (QCDs). QCDs provide one of the most tax-efficient ways for high net worth clients to accomplish their charitable giving goals by allowing them to directly transfer funds from a retirement account to a charitable organization. QCDs count against RMDs and allow retirement funds to be used directly for charitable contributions on a pre-tax basis, which allows individuals to make charitable contributions that are not subject to the limitations of an itemized income tax deduction.
QCD limits are now indexed for inflation annually. The increased limit for 2026 is $111,000.
Additionally, taxpayers can now use QCDs to fund charitable remainder trusts (CRTs) or charitable gift annuities. As with the new 529 plan rollover provision, the limitations to this new rule makes it less compelling than it may initially seem. For example, the maximum amount that can be used to fund these split-interest entities is $55,000 per taxpayer in 2026, and it is a one-time transfer. Further, the split-interest entity can only be funded with QCDs, no other funds. It’s hard to find a circumstance where it would be worth the cost and work to set up a CRT with these types of funding limitations. From a practical perspective, using QCDs to fund a charitable gift annuity, where the entity is established and operated by the charitable organization itself, may be the only realistic opportunity granted by this new provision.
How you can help now: For your clients that may have extra amounts in children’s and grandchildren’s 529 accounts, you can use the new 529-to-Roth rollover provision to start the conversation around what to do with those funds and if this new rollover option will be available to their beneficiaries. For families that plan on taking advantage of this new provision, you can help set up the Roth accounts for the 529 beneficiaries that will receive the rollover and plan to adjust their outside IRA contributions accordingly.
For clients that recently had a child or grandchild, this new rollover option is just another reason to set up a 529 for new arrivals. Depending on how certain parts of the legislation are interpreted, there may be an opportunity to help younger generations establish a solid retirement nest egg and save for higher education at the same time.
For clients who have significant retirement assets and are charitably inclined, the expansion of the QCD rules will give them more options when it comes to using their retirement assets to accomplish their charitable goals. Advising these clients of the expanded QCD rules can be a great way to jump-start a review of the client’s charitable giving plan or estate plan in general.
To be sure, there plenty of other provisions in SECURE 2.0 Act. For more information about the provisions, see SECURE 2.0: A boost to retirement savings.
Leslie Geller is a wealth strategist at Capital Group. She has 19 years of related industry experience and has been with Capital Group for seven years. Prior to joining Capital, Leslie was a partner at Elkins Kalt Weintraub Reuben Gartside LLP where she advised high- and ultra high-net-worth clients on all matters related to taxation, wealth transfer and family governance. Before that, she was an associate at Cleary Gottlieb. She received an LLM in taxation from New York University School of Law, a juris doctor from Boston College Law School and a bachelor’s degree from Washington and Lee University. Leslie is based in Los Angeles.
Jason Bortz is a senior counsel who has practiced law for 28 years (as of 12/31/25). He holds a juris doctor degree from Cornell and a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Hamilton College. He is a member of the California, New York and Washington, D.C., bars.
*Employees who received compensation of $5,000 or more in the preceding year
