When the Aspen Institute Financial Security Program convened the inaugural Aspen Leadership Forum on Retirement Savings in 2017, the retirement landscape looked far different than it does today. That was made evident when yet another diverse group gathered in Irvington, Virginia, in May 2024 for the eighth installment of what was conceived to be a decade-long dialogue about the barriers to an inclusive retirement savings system. At this gathering, participants noted the very real progress the annual meeting and its growing community have helped to usher in:
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- Financial Security Program
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Table of Contents
- 8 Priorities and 4 Big Questions for Making Americas Retirement Savings System Work for Everybody 1
- The time has come for a national approach to establish universal access to workplace retirement plans. 5
- Were almost topping out on states that are willing to put this mandate on businesses and that creates another divide in this country. 5
- What if saving for retirement started at birth 6
- We need to tackle The 1000 Problem. 7
- Lets stop coming up with new plans. The next idea is How can we make these plans work together 7
- What if theres political support for a federal approach for universal access to automatic enrollment into workplace retirement savings but we dont have the accounts to get it done 7
- The potential power of pro-growth policies for lower-income workers 8
- The bottom line is the faster that we can grow these accounts the easier it is going to be to deal with them. 8
- The Savers Match has tremendous potentialif we do it right. 9
- How exciting is this. Were on the ground floor of something that could change 22 million lives. If we get it right it will. 9
- We have to become Savers Match evangelists. We cant just talk about it. We have to make it real. 10
- How can we translate insights about retirement plan usage into better plan design and benefits 10
- Anything we can do to reduce leakage makes a big difference in closing the racial and gender wealth gaps. 11
- We need to better understand the financial shocks Americans face. 12
- People are tapping into their 401k accounts probably not to buy a new car or things like that but to weather the storm and build resilience against shocks. 12
- Do we know enough about the financial lives of older Americans 13
- Imagine how the data we could get on the nitty gritty issues that older Americans face could turn the narrative and get the public policy changes that will make a difference. 13
- A more inclusive retirement system means rethinking incentives. 14
- Too much of a leg up for savers 14
- Given that these incentives dont seem to be incentivizing people effectively it might be worth rethinking how we allocate the very large budgets we already have in play to encourage wealth building. 14
- Do we have the right mix of products and policies to help retirees create lifetime income 15
- You have people whove saved a ton of money and are now afraid to spend it in retirement. 15
- A missed opportunity 15
- To optimize the use of current retirement income tools we need to reimagine the delivery of financial advice. 16
- In the accumulation phase defaults matter. In de- cumulation you need a default solution but run into a personalization wall. 16
- We cant keep ignoring Social Security solutions. 17
- We cant wait until the last minute. The uncertainty over what you will get makes it hard to plan for the future. 17
- Why Social Security matters 18
- A more inclusive retirement system requires public sector action. 18
