The Women's Retirement Protection Act aims to bolster spousal protections within defined contribution retirement plans, primarily to address significant disparities in retirement preparedness, particularly for women. Congressional findings highlight that women often lag behind men in retirement savings due to factors like the pay gap, caregiving responsibilities, and lower Social Security benefits, leading to higher poverty rates among older women. The bill notes that while traditional defined benefit plans include spousal protections, defined contribution plans, which are increasingly common, currently lack similar safeguards. A core provision of the bill amends ERISA to require that individual account plans obtain spousal consent before making most distributions. This consent must be provided in writing by the spouse, acknowledge the effect of the distribution, and be witnessed by a plan representative or notary public. Participants must also receive a written explanation of their and their spouse's rights under these new provisions. Several exceptions exist to this spousal consent requirement, including for minimum required distributions, distributions less than 25 percent of the account balance (once per account), and distributions in the form of qualified joint and survivor annuities. Consent is also not required if 50 percent of the accrued benefit is transferred to the spouse's individual retirement plan. For eligible rollover distributions, spousal consent is needed if the rollover is to an individual retirement plan where the spouse is not the sole beneficiary or if the beneficiary can be changed without further spousal consent. Furthermore, consent is waived if there is no spouse, the couple has been married for less than one year, or the spouse cannot be located. The bill also creates a right of action for individuals whose rights under these new spousal protection provisions are violated. Beyond spousal consent, the legislation includes provisions to enhance consumer awareness and financial literacy. It mandates that financial product and service providers offer an easily accessible link to the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection's (CFPB) website, providing resources on retirement planning and economic security. The bill also authorizes the Secretary of Labor to award competitive grants to eligible community-based organizations to improve financial literacy for working-age and retired women. Additionally, it establishes grants to assist low-income women and survivors of domestic violence in obtaining and effectuating Qualified Domestic Relations Orders (QDROs) to secure their entitled benefits. The spousal protection amendments are set to apply to distributions and rollover contributions made in plan years beginning one year after the Act's enactment. The grant programs for financial literacy and QDRO assistance are authorized to receive $100,000,000 each for fiscal year 2026 and each succeeding fiscal year.