Professor Samantha Prince’s article being published by New York University Environmental Law Journal

April 2026 — “Depoliticizing 401(k) Disaster Access: Ending the Rigged Presidential Disaster Declaration Lottery,” written by Professor Samantha Prince, has been accepted for publication by the New York University Environmental Law Journal.

The article explores a critical but often overlooked consequence of the politicization of federal disaster declarations: the blocking of private 401(k) lifelines for disaster survivors.

In her research, Prince identifies a major regulatory blindspot created by the SECURE 2.0 Act. While the act authorizes penalty-free early withdrawals (Qualified Disaster Recovery Distributions) and specialized loans for disaster survivors, this access is entirely contingent upon a presidential major disaster declaration.

Under the Stafford Act’s grant of unfettered discretion, Prince argues, the declaration process has become a tool for political retaliation. When a president denies a declaration to punish a state's citizens or its politicians, victims are not only denied FEMA funding but are also blocked from accessing their own 401(k) funds to cover unassisted recovery costs.

In the article, Prince notes that this unilateral presidential power has transformed a financial lifeline into a rigged presidential disaster declaration lottery. Her article highlights how the current framework subjects survivors to presidential caprice, where the political alignment between a state governor and the White House can determine whether a citizen can access their own savings without penalty.

To solve this monopoly on the major disaster label, Prince proposes a legislative shift: decoupling 401(k) access from exclusive federal gatekeeping. She argues for an independent state trigger, where a governor’s disaster declaration would automatically satisfy the requirement for penalty-free 401(k) access. By creating this dual pathway for relief, Congress can ensure that a survivor’s financial recovery is dictated by the reality of the disaster on the ground rather than the political whims of the White House.

This article complements Prince’s other work on 401(k) plans, including “Promoting Financial Empowerment via 401(k) Plan Domestic Abuse Victim Distributions,” published by the George Washington Business and Finance Law Review; “Nest Eggs and Lifelines: The Overlooked Strain of Economic Volatility on 401(k) Participants,” published by the Corporate & Business Law Journal, “Megacompany Employee Churn Meets 401(k) Vesting Schedules: A Sabotage on Workers’ Retirement Wealth,” published by Yale Law & Policy Review; “The Effects of 401(k) Vesting Schedules—in Numbers,” published by The Yale Law Journal Forum; “Benefits Transparency,” published by Marquette Law Review (where she called for more transparency through mandatory disclosure of 401(k) plan details); and “Benefits Washing,” published by the Georgetown Law Journal Online (where she shows examples of companies that “wash” their 401(k) plan details including vesting schedules).

She also has another complementary work forthcoming, “Vesting Villainy: The Call to Ban 401(k) Vesting Schedules,” to be published by the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Business Law.

Professor Samantha J. Prince is an associate professor of law. She has a Master of Laws in Taxation from Georgetown University Law Center and was a partner in a regional law firm where she handled transactional matters that ranged from an initial public offering to regular representation of a publicly traded company. A significant part of her practice was on employee benefits, including retirement plan design and operation. Her expertise from practice has fueled her research, enabling her to become an expert on 401(k) vesting schedules, employee benefits transparency, and gig work. In practice, most of her clients were small- to medium-sized businesses and entrepreneurs, including start-ups. Professor Prince brought her practice knowledge to the Law School and established the Penn State Dickinson Law entrepreneurship program. She is an advisor for the Entrepreneurship Law Certificate that is available to students and is the founder and moderator of the Inside Entrepreneurship Law blog.