I read with great interest about what Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Patty Murray (D-WA) have proposed in the Women's Retirement Protection Act of 2025 (WRPA).
The Act aims to strengthen retirement security for women, who face systemic barriers such as lower wages and time out of the workforce for caregiving. Women generally have lower retirement savings than men and are more likely to live in poverty in old age. WRPA addresses these challenges by:
Enhancing Consumer Protections – Requiring spousal consent for withdrawals from defined contribution plans (e.g., 401(k)s), similar to defined benefit plans, to prevent financial harm to spouses.
Increasing Financial Literacy – Mandating financial providers to link to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in retirement product offers and providing grants for community-based financial education.
Assisting with QDROs (Qualified Domestic Relations Orders) – Offering grants to help low-income women and domestic violence survivors afford legal fees and access their fair share of retirement benefits after divorce.
Women lag significantly behind their male counterparts in retirement savings, as the median retirement income in 2023 was 84 percent of men’s retirement income. Because of these financial challenges, women, age 65 and older, are much more likely to live in poverty, compared to men in the same age group. This is partly because women face systemic barriers, like unequal pay and time out of the workforce for caregiving duties, which make it more difficult to adequately save for retirement.
Against this financial backdrop, it is important to protect their rights and financial future. Yes, I can see there is a bit more of an administrative hurdle in obtaining spousal consent but it also struck me that in this day and age of electronic signatures, that is less of a worry.
Of course, if both spouses share an email or know how to log into each other's email, then electronic signatures would be defeated, no? Back to requiring a notarized signature perhaps? Minor hassle given what is at stake here is my view.
WRPA aims to close the gender gap in retirement security and provide women with the tools to better prepare for financial stability in retirement. That is something we can all root for.