Proposed changes to retirement rules in PresidentObama's 2017 budget could mean tens of millions of new IRAaccounts may soon hit the market, though it's unclear if creditunions will get a piece of the action.

According to the proposed budget, all employers with more than10 workers would have to automatically enroll employees in an IRAif the employer doesn't already offer a retirement plan — a movethe White House said would send about 30 million workers into theIRA market. Employers would not be required to contribute to theaccounts, and those with 100 or fewer employees would receive a taxcredit of up to $4,500. Employees can opt out if they like.

“Approximately half of workers employed by firms with fewer than50 workers and fewer than one quarter of part-time workers haveaccess to workplace retirement plans,” the proposed budget said.“Workers without access to a plan at work rarelysave for retirement: Fewer than 10% of workers without accessto a workplace plan contribute to a retirement savings account ontheir own.”

But whether credit unions will be able to — or want to —participate is another story.

Some states may choose to administer their own programs, TomEckert, vice president for CUNA Mutual Retirement Solutions,said.

“It's a state by state issue,” he told CU Times.“You'd have to lobby the state legislature, say in your state [andsay], 'We would like credit unions to play a role.'”

Several states have already created auto-IRAs or retirementmarketplaces, and approximately 20 more may soon follow, accordingto the White House. The federal budget proposal follows anannouncement by the Employee Benefit Security Administration inNovember that would provide an ERISA safe harbor for employers instates that mandate or sponsor IRA programs. The proposed budgetsets aside $6.5 million for some states to do pilot programs.

“Obviously this is an interesting idea and NAFCU supports ideasthat encourage savings, but we would want to see more details ofthe proposal to see how it could possibly impact credit unions,”said NAFCU Director of Public Relations Patty Briotta.

Eckert noted that the IRA accounts that emerge under the budgetproposal would probably come from employees of small companies.That's an opportunityto establish relationships with new members, but there arerisks.

“If you think about it, as soon as an employer gets larger, itprobably will convert into a 401(k),” he said. “That's where Iwould be apprehensive about getting too excited about it.”

New employers can also have large failure rates, he added.

“Usually there's a reason that these employers haven't adopted aqualified plan,” he said.

Eckert said working with state legislatures is probably a goodnext step for credit unions, though there may not be manytakers.

According to the latest NCUA data, IRA and Keogh accounts atcredit unions totaled $76.71 billion or 7.73% of shares as ofSeptember 2015. That represents a $190 million drop from December2014 and a negative growth rate of 0.33%.

“Globally, I think the amount of marketing and awareness on IRAshas been muted from credit unions,” he said. “The big money is inthe rollover market at retirement. Creditunions usually aren't a big player there.”