I 
117TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 4678 
To amend the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 to provide 
for greater spousal protection under defined contribution plans, and 
for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 22, 2021 
Ms. UNDERWOOD (for herself, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Ms. BONAMICI, and Mr. 
NORCROSS) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Education and Labor, and in addition to the Committees on 
Ways and Means, and Financial Services, for a period to be subsequently 
determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provi-
sions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To amend the Employee Retirement Income Security Act 
of 1974 to provide for greater spousal protection under 
defined contribution plans, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Women’s Retirement 
Protection Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
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(1) Approximately 25 percent of non-retired 
adults have no defined benefit plan or retirement 
savings, according to 2020 data from the Board of 
Governors of the Federal Reserve System. 
(2) In 2020, one-third of the private sector 
workforce did not have access to a retirement plan 
at the workplace, and only half of the workforce ac-
tually participated in a retirement plan. 
(3) Women’s retirement preparedness often lags 
significantly behind their male counterparts’, result-
ing in the median income for women aged 65 and 
older in 2020 being just 83 percent of the median 
income of men aged 65 and older, including income 
from social security, pension plans, investments, and 
earnings. 
(4) Among people aged 75 and older, 13.2 per-
cent of women live in poverty, while 8.8 percent of 
men live in poverty. 
(5) Women make up two-thirds of low-wage 
workers, even though they comprise less than half of 
all workers, and low-wage workers are less likely 
than other workers to participate in a retirement 
plan at work. 
(6) Because of the pay gap, women working 
full-time, year-round typically lose $406,280 over a 
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40-year career thereby requiring the average woman 
to work almost a decade longer than her male coun-
terpart to make up that career wage gap. For Black 
and Latina women, the career wage gap is even larg-
er at $964,400 and $1,163,920, respectively. 
(7) Due to the lower lifetime wages stemming 
from unequal pay and caregiving duties, the average 
Social Security benefit in 2019 for a woman age 65 
or older was $13,505 a year, while for men such av-
erage benefit was $17,374 a year. 
(8) The COVID–19 pandemic has exacerbated 
the existing gender gap in retirement savings as 
women have been more likely to leave the workforce 
for caregiving. Women, especially women of color, 
have also been more likely to lose their jobs during 
the pandemic due to overrepresentation in industries 
severely hit by the pandemic. 
(9) Just 1 in 5 part-time workers who work a 
full year are eligible for a retirement plan, and 
women are almost twice as likely as men to work 
part-time. 
(10) While traditional defined benefit retire-
ment plans have spousal protections, defined con-
tribution retirement plans, which have become in-
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creasingly common, currently provide no similar 
spousal protections. 
(11) Every year, more than 1,200,000 couples 
get divorced in the United States. After the family 
home, retirement savings tends to be the largest 
asset to be divided in a divorce. 
(12) While fees and expenses associated with 
retirement plans have been in decline, participants 
have seen direct charges for processing qualified do-
mestic relations orders increase significantly. 
SEC. 3. INCREASING SPOUSAL PROTECTION UNDER DE-
FINED CONTRIBUTION PLANS. 
(a) AMENDMENT OF EMPLOYEE RETIREMENT IN-
COME SECURITY ACT OF 1974.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—Part 2 of subtitle B of title 
I of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act 
of 1974 (29 U.S.C. 1051 et seq.) is amended by in-
serting after section 205 the following new section: 
‘‘SEC. 205A. ADDITIONAL SPOUSAL CONSENT REQUIRE-
MENTS. 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Each individual account plan to 
which section 205 does not apply shall provide that, except 
as provided in subsections (c) and (d), no distribution may 
be made under the plan unless the spousal consent re-
quirements of subsection (e) are met. 
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‘‘(b) COORDINATION WITH SECTION 205.—Nothing 
in this section shall be construed to exempt an individual 
account plan from the requirements of paragraph (1)(B), 
(1)(C), or (2) of section 205(b) with respect to any partici-
pant. 
‘‘(c) EXCEPTIONS FOR CERTAIN DISTRIBUTIONS.— 
Subsection (a) shall not apply to— 
‘‘(1) any distribution that is— 
‘‘(A) a minimum required distribution de-
scribed in section 4974(b) of the Internal Rev-
enue Code of 1986; or 
‘‘(B) permitted under section 203(e)(1) to 
be made without the consent of the participant; 
‘‘(2) any distribution in the form of a qualified 
joint and survivor annuity (as defined in section 
205(d)(1)), a qualified optional survivor annuity (as 
defined in section 205(d)(2)), a qualified preretire-
ment survivor annuity (as defined in section 205(e)), 
or a series of substantially equal periodic payments 
(not less frequently than annually) made for the 
joint lives (or life expectancies) of the participant 
and the participant’s spouse; or 
‘‘(3) in the case of a participant who does not 
elect a form of benefit described in paragraph (2) 
under the plan or who is participating in a plan that 
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does not provide such a form of benefit, any dis-
tribution of the participant’s entire nonforfeitable 
accrued benefit if 50 percent of such accrued benefit 
is transferred to an individual retirement plan (as 
defined in section 7701(a)(37) of the Internal Rev-
enue Code of 1986) of the spouse of the participant. 
A transfer described in paragraph (3) to an individual re-
tirement plan shall be treated in the same manner as a 
transfer under section 408(d)(6) of the Internal Revenue 
Code of 1986. 
‘‘(d) EXCEPTIONS FOR CERTAIN ROLLOVER CON-
TRIBUTIONS.—Subsection (a) shall not apply to any dis-
tribution that is an eligible rollover distribution (as de-
fined in section 402(f)(2)(A) of the Internal Revenue Code 
of 1986) made in the form of a direct trustee-to-trustee 
transfer within the meaning of section 401(a)(31) of the 
Internal Revenue Code of 1986— 
‘‘(1) to a plan to which this section or section 
205 applies; or 
‘‘(2) to an individual retirement plan (as de-
fined in section 7701(a)(37) of the Internal Revenue 
Code of 1986) if— 
‘‘(A) the beneficiary of such plan is the 
spouse of the participant, or the spousal con-
sent requirements of subsection (e) are met 
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with respect to any designation of 1 or more 
other beneficiaries; and 
‘‘(B) under the terms of the individual re-
tirement plan, the beneficiary of such plan 
(whether the spouse or other beneficiary des-
ignated under paragraph (1)) may not be 
changed unless— 
‘‘(i) the spousal consent requirements 
of subsection (e) are met with respect to 
any such change; or 
‘‘(ii) the spousal consent under sub-
paragraph (A) to the designation of a ben-
eficiary other than the spouse expressly 
permits such designation to be changed 
without the further consent of the spouse. 
‘‘(e) SPOUSAL CONSENT REQUIREMENTS.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—For purposes of this sec-
tion, except as provided in paragraph (2), the spous-
al consent requirements of this subsection are met 
with respect to any distribution or any designation 
or change of beneficiary if— 
‘‘(A) the plan provides to each participant, 
within a reasonable period of time before such 
distribution or designation or change of bene-
ficiary is made and consistent with such regula-
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tions as the Secretary of the Treasury may pre-
scribe, a written explanation of the rights of the 
participant and the participant’s spouse under 
this section; 
‘‘(B) the spouse of the participant consents 
in writing to the distribution or designation or 
change of beneficiary; 
‘‘(C) in the case of a distribution, the writ-
ten consent under subparagraph (B) is made 
during the consent period; and 
‘‘(D) the written consent under subpara-
graph (B)— 
‘‘(i) acknowledges the effect of such 
distribution or designation or change of 
beneficiary; and 
‘‘(ii) is witnessed by a plan represent-
ative or a notary public. 
‘‘(2) EXCEPTIONS.—The requirements of para-
graph (1) (other than subparagraph (A) thereof) 
shall not apply with respect to any distribution or 
designation or change of beneficiary if a participant 
establishes to the satisfaction of the plan adminis-
trator that— 
‘‘(A) there is no spouse; 
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