Recent bipartisan bills in House and Senate reintroduce Act to permit inclusion of CITs in governmental 403(b) plans provided to federal and public workers, including 15 million teachers, hospital workers, and non-profit employees
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Lexington, KY; Elk Grove, CA, February 11, 2025—The National Association of Government Defined Contribution Administrators (NAGDCA) and National Council on Teacher Retirement (NCTR) today communicated their endorsement of the Retirement Fairness for Charities and Educational Institutions Act of 2025.
The Act, recently reintroduced with bills in the Senate (S. 424) and House (H.R. 1013), amends federal law to permit inclusion of collective investment trusts (CITs) among governmental 403(b) investment options. Under current law, private sector 401(k) plans and all other defined contribution retirement plans, other than governmental 403(b) plans, are permitted to invest in CITs.
In a letter to the bills’ sponsors Senator Katie Britt (R-AL) and Representative John Lucas (R-OK), Matt Petersen, NAGDCA Executive Director, and R. Dean Kenderdine, NCTR Executive Director, note that CITs often have lower costs than mutual funds and annuity contracts, which are the only investment options currently available to governmental 403(b) plans. Further, they state that “Governmental 403(b) plans offer workers who are the backbone of our society—teachers, healthcare workers, and other public servants—access to increasingly important supplemental savings vital to their overall retirement security, and they deserve access to all options to help these retirement savings grow as much as possible.” “We feel strongly that CITs offer a sound investment for public sector employees and we thank you for your introduction of this important legislation,” they conclude.
Senator Britt sponsored S. 424 in the Senate along with co-sponsors Senators Gary Peters (D-MI), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), and Raphel Warnock (D-GA). Representative Lucas sponsored H.R. 1013 in the House with co-sponsors Representatives Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Bill Foster (D-Illinois), and Andy Bar (R-KY).
The full letter may be accessed here.
ABOUT NAGDCA
NAGDCA is the premier professional association for plan administrators and services providers of government-sponsored defined contribution retirement plans. NAGDCA members include 270 plan sponsors representing 15,000 governments in 49 states. Participants come from every level of state, territorial, and local government, including counties, cities, public safety agencies, school districts, transportation, and utilities. NAGDCA’s members administer governmental deferred compensation and defined contribution plans, including Section 457(b), 401(k), 401(a), and 403(b) plans. To learn more about NAGDCA, visit https://www.nagdca.org/.
About NCTR
NCTR is an independent association dedicated to safeguarding the integrity of public retirement systems in the United States and its territories to which teachers belong, and to promoting the rights and benefits of all present and future members of the systems. NCTR’s membership includes 63 state, territorial, and local pension systems with combined assets of more than $2 trillion in their trust funds, serving more than 19 million active and retired teachers, non-teaching personnel, and other public employees. To learn more about NCTR, visit https://www.nctr.org/.
# # #
Media Contact
Robin Schoen
Robin Schoen Public Relations
215.595.7542
rschoen@robinschoenpr.com