The Aspen Institute

Watch the webcast below:

Small businesses in the US account for 17 percent of the workforce and 63 percent of all new job creation. But the hard-charging entrepreneurs who keep these businesses running often struggle to set up retirement plans for themselves and their workers. These are busy proprietors trying to keep the lights on, after all, not professional benefit managers. And setting up a retirement plan can be complicated and costly — or at least that’s the conventional wisdom. But what if the conventional wisdom is wrong?

Building on the Aspen Financial Security Program’s summer blog series on the topic, this event explored current innovations in the public and private sectors that are changing the way retirement benefits are delivered to small businesses. Hanging in the balance are the 32 million small business employees who lack access to a workplace retirement plan. Bridging this coverage gap will require new types of retirement plans that are well-integrated with firms’ payroll systems, make use of technology for low-cost compliance and investment, and exist within a well-designed regulatory and policy structure. This event, which is co-sponsored by the Bipartisan Policy Center and The Pew Charitable Trusts, tackled all of these issues and more, spotlighting some of the potential breakthrough solutions currently being implemented.

See below for a list of speakers, as well as photos and Tweets from the various conversations.

Remarks by

• Jamie Kalamarides, President, Group Insurance, Prudential
• James B. Lockhart III, Co-Chair, Commission on Retirement Security and Personal Savings, Bipartisan Policy Center
• David Mitchell, Senior Program Manager, Aspen Institute FSP
• Tobias Read, Oregon State Treasurer
• Jeremy Smith, Associate Director, Aspen Institute FSP

Panel: Barriers to Small Business Retirement Plans

• Rhett Buttle, Senior Fellow, Aspen Institute Financial Security Program
• Allen Gutierrez, Associate Administrator of the Office of Entrepreneurial Development, U.S. Small Business Administration
• John Scott, Director, Retirement Savings Project, The Pew Charitable Trusts
• Holly Wade, Director, Research and Policy Analysis, National Federation of Independent Business

Panel: Potential Solutions to the Small Business Coverage Gap

• Paul Davidson, Director, Human Resource Services, Paychex
• Bob Guillocheau, President and CEO, Ascensus
• Ida Rademacher, Executive Director, Aspen Institute FSP
• Jeff Rosenberger, Chief Operating Officer, Guideline
• Katie Selenski, Executive Director, California Secure Choice

We are grateful to the Prudential Foundation for supporting this event.

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