The State of Retirement: Shaping the Future

Bonnie-Jeanne MacDonald, Director of Financial Security Research at the National Institute on Ageing at Ryerson University and Barbara Sanders, Associate Professor  Statistics and Actuarial Science, Simon Fraser University introduce us to the concept of Dynamic Pension Pools, how they are different from other lifetime income solutions, and the role they can play enhancing the quality of life in re...

Ayandev Saha, Head of Climate Risk and Insurance, RMD London, introduces us to a new retirement savings scheme launched in Rwanda in late 2018.  This initiative also is outlined in a recent white paper submitted to the CRI titled " Rwf 23.2 billion saved into informal sector pension scheme –Extending pension coverage to the informal sector in Rwanda " for the  2021 Policy Innovation Forum . 

INDUSTRY INSIGHTS EDITION   Chad Parks ,  Founder and CEO of Ubiquity Retirement +Savings, a fintech company committed to serving the small business market, explains  why he  supports   new state-facilitated retirement savings programs, the ways in which the public and private sectors can contribute to closing the  savings access gap, the innovation and competition we are seeing with new products...

David Blanchett, Managing Director and Head of Retirement Research for PGIM DC Solutions, and Michael Finke, Professor, Professor of Wealth Management and Frank M. Engle Distinguished Chair in Economic Security Research at The American College of Financial Services, explain what we know about how retirees save and spend their money, what information, tools, and solutions can be of the greatest hel...

On this audio replay of CRI's February 17, 2022 webinar, Angela Antonelli moderates a series of panel presentations by:    The Honorable Stacy Garrity, Treasurer, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania The Honorable Josh Gotbaum, Chair, MarylandSaves Mary Morris, CEO, Virginia529 and the VA Retirement Savings Program John Scott, Retirement Savings Project Director, The Pew Charitable Trusts Katie Selenski,...

Michael Kreps, Principal & Co-Chair of the Retirement Services Practice, Groom Law Group, discusses how well the retirement system continues to hold up as we begin a new year; provides an overview of some of the more significant retirement related legislative reform initiatives considered but not enacted by Congress in 2021 with his predictions for action in 2022; and also reviews the Biden Admini...

John Scott, Project Director, Retirement Savings Project, The Pew Charitable Trusts shares the findings of recent research related to the implementation of state auto-IRA retirement savings programs in Oregon and Illinois.  He explains the role these programs play in closing the retirement savings access gap, the budget and economic consequences of doing nothing to address the problem of insuffici...

Theresa Whitmarsh, Executive Director, Washington State Investment Board will retire at the end of 2021 after 18 years of service.  The Board manages more than $165 billion in assets, and is one of the top 5 best funded and highest performing pension funds in the nation.  It also is a leader in private asset investing, with private equity, real estate and tangible assets comprising 48 percent of i...

Dennis Simmons, Executive Director of the  Committee on the Investment of Employee Benefit Assets (CIEBA) , discusses key issues of focus for today's retirement plan sponsors. Chief Investment Officers (CIOs) are keenly focused on the investment performance of their defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC) retirement plans and working in the best interest of their employees.  Recent refo...

NBER President and MIT Professor James Poterba discussed current demographic and economic trends and the challenges they pose for the future of retirement security.  He provides an update on the current condition of Social Security, what a low return environment means for retirement savings, the importance of financial education, and why designing lifetime income solutions can be complicated.

On this audio replay of CRI's May 13, 2021 webinar, Charles E.F. Millard, former Director, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, and Senior Advisor, Amundi Asset Management moderates a discussion with panelists from the United Kingdom (David Pitt-Watson and Terry Pullinger), the Netherlands (Alwin Oerlemans), and the United States (Bradford Campbell) on challenges faced by defined contribution in...

David Morse, Partner, K&L Gates, provides an overview of how ERISA and the tax code apply to IRAs, 401(k)s and MEPs and what it means for state-facilitated retirement savings programs.  See recent CRI related paper .

Michael Kreps, Principal, Groom Law Group, reviews how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected retirement savings for public and private sector retirement systems, the implementation of the SECURE Act to date, and the prospects for additional legislative and regulatory reform in 2021 and beyond with President Biden and Congress.

VA529 CEO Mary Morris discusses the nature of the retirement savings challenge facing private sector workers in Virginia; the work of the 2020 retirement study lead by VA529 and the feedback received; why the study report recommended an auto-IRA program; and some key program features reflected in their recommendations, many of which are included in the program bill being considered during the 2021...

In this audio replay of CRI's December 15, 2020 webinar, CRI's Executive Director Angela Antonelli and Ethan Connor-Ross, Senior Vice President at Econsult Solutions, Inc. (ESI) discuss the CRI's latest research prepared in collaboration with ESI which evaluates options for providing national universal retirement savings access if some or all employers are required to offer either a payroll deduct...

California Treasurer Fiona Ma, Chair of the CalSavers Retirement Savings Board and Katie Selenski, Executive Director of CalSavers, discuss the history and goals of the program; its current design and launch, which like so much has been affected by the current COVID pandemic; and some lessons learned.  

INDUSTRY INSIGHTS EDITION Nick Nefouse, Head of Defined Contribution Investment and Product Strategy with BlackRock, and Jeff Cimini, Head of Institutional Product at Voya Financial, discuss the financial challenges facing workers today and how they, along with others, are responding to the demand to provide options to improve financial well-being, including innovative new solutions to generate an...

Pablo Antolin, the Principal Economist and Head of the Private Pensions Unit, and the Deputy Head of the Insurance, Pensions, and Financial Markets Division, of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) shares important considerations in the design of retirement plan arrangements, recent reform trends around the world, and some international best practices policymakers and...

The Honorable Seth Harris, former Deputy Secretary and Acting Secretary of Labor in the Obama Administration, discusses the challenges and options for addressing retirement coverage and adequacy, including the importance of state-facilitated retirement savings programs and provisions of the Secure Act, including pooled employer plans and lifetime income. He also shares his thoughts about how retir...

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic impacts, Pennsylvania Treasurer Joe Torsella and Colorado Treasurer Dave Young share their concerns about the financial fragility of too many Americans, the importance of savings, including retirement savings, and their work chairing retirement security study groups in their states leading to recommendations to establish state-facilitated reti...

INDUSTRY INSIGHTS EDITION Charles Millard, former Director, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), Josh Cohen, Managing Director, Head of Institutional Defined Contribution, PGIM and Matthew Brenner, Managing Vice President, Investments, ICMA-RC discuss why DC plans today should consider greater diversification of asset classes and strategies.  Might the COVID-19 economic shock and its impac...

David John, AARP Public Policy Institute, shares the history of his bipartisan collaboration with Mark Iwry leading to the creation of the auto-IRA, its adoption by states, and its role in shaping a more holistic approach to savings and financial well-being.

Michael Kreps, Principal, Groom Law Group, reviews the provisions of the recently passed SECURE Act, outlines what these latest reforms could mean for the future of retirement plans, and provides a legislative and regulatory outlook for 2020.

Brigitte Madrian, Distinguished Professor and Dean of the Marriott School of Business at Brigham Young University, highlights findings from her research about the ways choice architecture can shape retirement plan design, the role financial education and emergency savings accounts can play in improving financial security, and how framing strategies can affect decisions to adopt lifetime income sol...

Harry Smorenberg, CEO of Smorenberg Consultancy, discusses the aging of the global population and how it will inevitably transform how we work, how long we work, and require new approaches to creating and building the sustainable retirement systems of the future.