L. 116–94 (text) (PDF), was signed into law by President Donald Trump on December 20, 2019 as part of the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020 (2020 United States federal budget).

Richard Neal, the U.S. representative for Massachusetts's 1st congressional district and chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, introduced the SECURE Act as H.R.

[5] The bipartisan bill was co-introduced by Ranking Member Kevin Brady (R-TX) as well as Reps. Ron Kind (D-WI) and Mike Kelly (R-PA).

To that end, it contains a number of provisions to incentivize retirement planning, diversify the options available to savers, and increase access to tax-advantaged savings programs.

MEPs existed prior to the SECURE Act, but under the previous law they were required to be related in some way (e.g. through geography or through membership in a common industry or trade association).

[10][9] The law also provides a maximum tax credit of $500 per year to small employers who create a 401(k) or SIMPLE IRA plan with automatic enrollment.

[3] The SECURE Act also permits graduate students to treat stipends and non-tuition fellowship payments as compensation for the purposes of contributing to IRAs.

[3][10] The SECURE Act received support from a variety of special interest and consumer advocacy groups, including the Society for Human Resource Management[18] and the AARP.

[19] The CEO of AARP, Jo Ann Jenkins, praised the bill, citing provisions that she claimed would reduce poverty risk among retirees and improve the nation's financial security.

[21] Some critics have expressed concern about the provision making it easier for 401(k) plan administrators to offer annuities,[3] describing it as a "cave-in to the insurance lobby".

[22] Others such as Denise Appleby and Bruce Steiner contend that the SECURE Act will encourage more IRA owners to do Roth conversions now that many beneficiaries will be in higher tax brackets as a result of bunching the distributions into fewer years.

[24] The Joint Congressional Committee on Taxation released a report suggesting that the SECURE Act's impact on retirement savings would be relatively modest.