Half a century ago, the global medical community united to wipe out smallpox, an infectious disease that afflicted mankind for millennia. In 1966, the World Health Organization (WHO) established the Smallpox Eradication Programme, which sent Western doctors to vaccinate the populations of nations and communities around the globe where smallpox was still rampant. No place where smallpox cases had been reported, or where the local population was not vaccinated, was overlooked by WHO medical teams, no matter how remote the village or how dangerous the journey.

On Thursday, May 11^th, the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) conducted their 80^th Policy Forum.  

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.

In the spirit of Financial Literacy Month, retirement plan sponsors are to be commended for their commitment to enhance financial wellness among participants. In fact, 76% of employers offer financial health programs for employees, according to the seventh annual survey on corporate health and well-being conducted by Fidelity Investments and the National Business Group on Health^® in 2016.

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. 

As much as $2 trillion could be retained in the U.S. retirement systems if Auto Portability were fully implemented, according to new research by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI). The research establishes Auto Portability as a leading retirement industry public policy initiative, placing it ahead of auto IRA initiatives and just behind universal DC coverage in terms of impact on total retirement savings shortfall.

If you’ve ever broken a bone—playing sports, engaging in outdoor activities, or even just from a slip and fall—it doesn’t take long before the pain signals that you need to go see a doctor, and the sooner the better. The friction encountered while moving a retirement savings account from an old-employer plan to a current-employer plan when changing jobs sends similar pain signals through most participants. With the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) indicating that the average participant will have 7.4 jobs in their adult working career, the risk of participants incurring a fracture in their retirement savings is very high.

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.