PROFESSOR SAMANTHA PRINCE’S ESSAY “FINANCIAL EMPOWERMENT VIA 401(k) PLAN DOMESTIC ABUSE VICTIM DISTRIBUTIONS” TO BE PUBLISHED BY THE GEORGE WASHINGTON BUSINESS & FINANCE LAW REVIEW
July 2025 — “Financial Empowerment via 401(k) Plan Domestic Abuse Victim Distributions,” written by Professor Samantha Prince, has been accepted for fall publication by the George Washington Business & Finance Law Review.
SECURE 2.0 Act permits a new type of penalty-free pre-retirement distribution for domestic abuse victims. Such distributions can significantly assist individuals with escaping their abuser.
Giving domestic abuse victims financial empowerment so that they can both escape their abuser and be positioned to stay free is crucial. This essay warns that during high inflationary or economically volatile periods when expenses are higher and investment balances uncertain, it can be more financially challenging to break and stay free from one’s abuser.
It then discusses how employers can help employees who are in abusive situations through employee benefits like their 401(k) plans. Specifically, this essay focuses on the newly created allowance for Domestic Abuse Victim Distributions from 401(k) plans and how employers can support and assist their victim employees. Suggestions include amending their plans to permit these distributions, to eliminate any vesting schedules that the plan may utilize, and to change their contribution structure to be more beneficial to women and low-income earners—those who are more susceptible to abusive situations. The essay further suggests increased transparency of the employer’s offerings as well as increased financial and investment education for employees struggling with these decisions.
This essay complements Prince’s other work on 401(k) plans, including "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" (co-authored), 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); "Benefits Washing," published by the Georgetown Law Journal Online; and "Vesting Villainy," which is forthcoming with University of Pennsylvania Journal of Business Law.
Professor Samantha 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 in 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.