In 1989, New York real estate developer Seymour Durst wanted to highlight America’s rising national debt, and came up with an idea: the National Debt Clock. Since then, the National Debt Clock has had a physical presence as a billboard near Times Square, serving as a constant reminder to Americans of their government’s ever-growing debt. 

On Thursday, May 11^th, the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) will conduct their 80^th Policy Forum, sponsored by the EBRI Education and Research Fund (ERF). Hosted at the 20 F Street, NW Conference Center, the Forum is scheduled from 8:30am to 12:30pm.

As we marked the 47th annual Earth Day on April 22nd, we were once again reminded of the need to protect our environment. This heightened awareness is testament to how far Americans have come in both recognizing and curbing the wasteful, destructive behaviors that emerged in the decades following World War II. Those excesses have given rise to conservation and environmentalism, and were heralded by the first Earth Day in 1970. 

Today, many Americans are hard-pressed to set aside enough savings for a timely or comfortable retirement.   The factors most-often cited as driving the coming “retirement crisis” include longer life expectancies, rising healthcare costs and stagnant incomes. The African-American community faces these same challenges plus other economic headwinds, but with larger hurdles to overcome to secure a comfortable retirement.

An upcoming event in Washington, DC, to be held on March 30^th and hosted by the Financial Services Roundtable, promises to be both highly-interesting and informative, addressing the very latest in retirement plan portability research and development.

The event, Retirement Plan Portability & Public Policy: Unlocking the potential in portability, will take place at the Financial Services Roundtable’s headquarters [map] from 10:30 a.m. to Noon, and is free to attend. Click here to view a full agenda. 

The pace of change in today’s world is faster than ever -- and accelerating.  Consider the vast change witnessed by today’s centenarians over the course of their lives – moving from the horse-and-buggy to aviation, moon landings, the Internet and smartphones.

In his May 9th article in MarketWatch’s Retirement Mentors blog, RCH President & CEO Spencer Williams offers sage advice to college graduates as they enter the workforce:  consolidate your retirement savings!

In his April 1^st, 2016 article in MarketWatch, RCH’s CEO Spencer Williams describes the sting that retirement savers feel -- not once, but twice -- when they choose to cash out their 401(k) savings.

Clearly, Washington DC is now “getting it” when it comes to retirement plan portability. 

In November 2015, Senator Patty Murray and other influential members of Congress delivered a letter to Department of Labor Secretary Perez urging action on Auto Portability. Now, we have strong comments from President Obama in his final State Of The Union address on the need for more portable retirement savings.

In his December 11^th article in BenefitsPro (Addressing the Critical Problem of 401(k) Cash Outs), Nick Thornton draws much-needed attention to the magnitude of the 401(k) cash out leakage issue, due to the frictions associated with account portability when plan participants switch jobs. Thornton’s article rightly emphasizes the need for automated portability – similar to automatic enrollment and deferral increases - to effectively address the cash out problem.