MarketWatch
Here’s how Congress wants to combat early withdrawals from retirement accounts
Americans’ retirement portfolios suffer from “leakage” every year, which is defined as early withdrawals from retirement accounts for reasons outside of retirement. Most retirement accounts require investors to be age 59 1/2 before they’re allowed to take penalty-free distributions, but hardships do happen, such as job loss, a disability or a death in the family. Distributions for non-emergencies, such as cashing out an account when switching jobs, however, could unnecessarily put an American’s future retirement in peril.