Rutledge leaving Labor Department at end of May

The assistant secretary of Labor worked on plans to permit electronic plan disclosures

Preston Rutledge, assistant secretary of Labor responsible for the Employee Benefits Security Administration, will be leaving the job at the end of May.

“He was a champion of what became the SECURE Act, first as a legislative architect in the Senate and then at EBSA, positioning the agency to help workers see the potential value of their savings as lifetime income in retirement,” Susan Neely, president and CEO of the American Council of Life Insurers, said in a release.

The Department of Labor gave no reason for his departure or what his next move might be.

Rutledge, who replaced Phyllis Borzi in 2017, previously served as tax and benefits counsel for the Senate Finance Committee. Before joining the Republican staff in 2011, he worked with the Internal Revenue Service’s tax-exempt and government entities division in Washington. He has also worked in private practice as an employee benefits counselor and litigator.

At the Labor Department, he has overseen implementation of the association retirement plan rule, which outlines the conditions that groups or associations must meet to sponsor multiple employer plans, and an electronic disclosure safe harbor, which would permit default electronic delivery of retirement plan disclosures.