I graduated from school in 1998. 2023 was the year that all my loans were paid off, loans that were just made for law school, and my one-year Tax LLM program. So I understand how terrible student loans can be.

One facet of SECURE 2.0 that got people talking is the provision to allow a 401(k) match based on a participant’s student loan payment rather than deferrals.

Again, for most small and medium-sized plans, I truly doubt they will implement this change. Many plans don’t offer a match and I think for those that do, any hurdles put in their place by the Internal Revenue Service is going to cut down on interest.

A survey showed that more than 60% of plan sponsors will not add the provision. Only about 5% will add, while about 19% are considering it.