Unified Trust CEO & Senator McConnell’s Staff Met To Discuss SECURE Act

Business Wire

The bill designed to help Americans overcome the national retirement crisis has stalled in the Senate

LEXINGTON, Ky.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Unified Trust Company (“Unified Trust”), Founder and CEO Dr. Gregory Kasten met with members of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s senior staff today to discuss the importance of the SECURE Act in helping to reduce red tape for small businesses in delivering effective retirement plans to their employees.

Often referred to as ‘America’s Retirement Crisis,’ research shows that the vast majority of Americans will be unable to adequately fund their retirement. Over the last 30+ years the 401(k) defined contribution plan has become the primary tool for retirement savings, yet it is not available to everyone and often when it is, the plan is not designed to effectively produce successful outcomes.

“The pension era or this idea of a guaranteed retirement is really a thing of the past. If the 401(k) is the vehicle for saving for retirement, it’s clearly broken and we in the industry need to help legislatures fix it,” said Dr. Gregory Kasten, CEO of Unified Trust.

The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act is a bipartisan bill designed to make it easier and more cost effective for small businesses to deliver a retirement plan benefit to their employees. With the proposed bill, small businesses could take advantage of increased tax incentives, the flexibility to move to a safe harbor 401(k) plan to reduce administrative burden and the opportunity to leverage economies of scale by joining a pooled employer plan, among other benefits.

“In the current 401(k) structure, small businesses simply face too many challenges. It is very difficult to offer a retirement benefit, let alone one that produces impactful outcomes. If we can reduce the barriers for these businesses, it will allow more individuals the opportunity to be successful,” said Kasten.

Despite being passed almost unanimously by the House, the bill has stalled in the Senate amidst competing legislative priorities. Kasten met with Senator McConnell’s senior staff to reinforce the benefits of the bill with hopes of pushing it forward.

Kasten founded Unified Trust Company, a national bank trust company and discretionary trustee fiduciary in 1985. Unified Trust serves retirement plans as well as individual and institutional investors with a mix of digital and traditional advice.

About Unified Trust Company

Unified Trust Company, N.A. (Lexington, Ky., $5 billion in assets under management) is a national bank trust company and discretionary trustee, serving individual, institutional and retirement plan investors. As a fiduciary, the firm is dedicated to helping people achieve successful financial outcomes. It is the first trust company in the U.S. and among the first globally to be certified for fiduciary best practices by the Centre for Fiduciary Excellence.