Senator's Financial Freedom Act would ensure Bitcoin can be in your 401(k)
Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville from Alabama has unveiled a new bill he calls the Financial Freedom Act to allow Americans to add cryptocurrency to their 401(k) retirement savings plan unencumbered by regulatory guidance.
The new bill is Tuberville's response to the Department of Labor’s (DOL) push to potentially keep crypto out of 401(k) investment plans due to its perceived potential for risk to investors. As reported by Cointelegraph, the DOL said employees who choose to invest in crypto through their 401(k) could attract legal attention.
In an op-ed for CNBC on May 5, Senator Tuberville stated:
He said the DOL’s March 10 policy change against the use of brokerage windows by employees to self-direct their income investments is “inconsistent with longstanding practice.”
NEW BILL ALERT: I just introduced the #FinancialFreedomAct, allowing retirement savers to invest their 401(k) funds as they see fit. The government should not be in the business of telling retirement savers how they can invest their money.https://t.co/6LGtpxquOW
Brokerage windows let 401(k) investors take control of what investments their account invests in rather than accepting what their employer’s broker chooses for them. The Senator continued:
Investment managing firm Fidelity Investments said on Apri. 26 it would begin allowing customers to include Bitcoin (BTC) in their 401(k) accounts. This caused Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Tim Smith to argue in a letter to Fidelity CEO Abigail Johnson that there may be a conflict of interest since the firm has been working with crypto products since 2017. They also mentioned that crypto investments bear “significant risks of fraud, theft and loss.”
Senator Warren is a vocal opponent of crypto
Read more on cointelegraph.com
