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    How Donald Trump’s Presidency Could Impact Retirement Rules

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    Readers had questions about individual retirement accounts, distributions and access to brokerage accounts if they moved away from the U.S. Here are some answers.Your retirement accounts may be the biggest component of your net worth. Or maybe those large balances are still only a goal, and you want to know if any changes coming in the next four years will help you get there — or get in your way.Of the 1,200 or so money-related questions we’ve received from readers in the days since the presidential election, many have been about retirement. We have some answers for what we know and context for what we don’t yet know. Most of them have nothing to do with Social Security; my colleague Tara Siegel Bernard answered questions about that program last week.But first, here’s an important caveat that is true in any administration, but especially in one like this: For things to change, President-elect Donald J. Trump has to want things to change, act on that desire and then succeed. If lawmakers are involved, they also have to have the desire, follow through and pass legislation.There will be plenty of noise, but in this particular category, it’s possible that not much of substance will look different four years from now.What did Mr. Trump say he wanted to change about individual retirement accounts or 401(k)s?Not much. Neither Mr. Trump’s campaign website nor the Republican Party platform that it pointed to said anything about I.R.A.s or workplace retirement accounts like 401(k)s, with one exception that probably wouldn’t affect many people.On his campaign website, Mr. Trump sounded off about environmental, social and governance, or E.S.G., funds and their place in workplace retirement plans. During his first term, the Labor Department issued a rule related to what sorts of funds an employer — which must act in employees’ best interest as a so-called fiduciary — can use in those plans.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Why States Are Offering Workers at Private Companies Access to I.R.A.s

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      With the plans, workers are automatically enrolled and contribute through payroll deductions. The goal is to help more Americans save for retirement.Traditional pensions are increasingly rare. About half of employees at private companies don’t have access to a retirement plan. And retirees themselves say they haven’t saved enough.That is why states have decided to step in and offer retirement accounts for private-sector employees, helping workers to save more and, new research shows, perhaps even spurring companies to offer their own workplace retirement plans.Automatic individual retirement account programs, known as “auto-I.R.A.s,” typically require private employers that don’t offer workplace retirement plans like 401(k)s to register for state-run plans.Workers are automatically enrolled in I.R.A.s, often with 3 to 5 percent of their income deducted from their paychecks, but can change the amount or opt out if they prefer. The employers — typically small businesses and nonprofits — provide access to payroll deductions to ease worker contributions, but don’t oversee the plan or pay fees.Auto-I.R.A.s are now available in 10 states, including New Jersey and Delaware, which started plans this summer, and soon will be in seven more, according to the Georgetown University Center for Retirement Initiatives. At the end of October, there were more than 930,000 accounts with $1.7 billion in savings for the eight plans for which data was available, according to the Georgetown center.Workers can, of course, open an I.R.A. on their own at a bank or brokerage. But few workers do so, perhaps because of inertia or because they are intimidated about making investment choices.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Money in College Savings Accounts Can Now Go Toward Retirement

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      But there are caveats to moving the money into Roth I.R.A.s, and the government still has to issue guidelines about the option.Starting this year, some of the money in 529 college savings accounts can be used for retirement if it’s not needed for education.New rules under the federal law known as Secure 2.0 allow up to $35,000 in a 529 account to be rolled over to a Roth individual retirement account for the beneficiary of the 529 account if certain conditions are met.State-sponsored 529 accounts, named for a section of the tax code, are used to pay for education expenses — mainly college costs. Money deposited in the accounts grows tax free and can be withdrawn tax free to pay for eligible expenses like tuition, housing, food and books.The new Roth option is aimed at parents who may be reluctant to save in a 529 because they worry about having to pay income taxes and a penalty if for some reason the funds aren’t needed for college and they want to withdraw the money.“It is parents’ No. 1 objection to opening a 529,” said Vivian Tsai, chair emeritus of the College Savings Foundation, a group that includes big financial firms that run the state college savings programs. “The barrier is really psychological.” (Ms. Tsai is also senior director and head of relationship management for the education savings unit at TIAA, a large investment firm that manages 529 plans in seven states.)Many families struggle to save for college, and accumulating “too much” money is usually not a problem. “The vast majority of account holders do not save enough,” Ms. Tsai said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More