On September 23, 2010, Lisa Mensah, Executive Director of Aspen Institute Initiative on Financial Security (Aspen IFS), participated in the “Make it Happen: Asset Building for All Strategy Session” at CFED’s 2010 Asset Learning Conference. The conference, entitled “The Assets Movement at Its Moment: Creating the Save & Invest Economy” brought together over 1,000 organizers, policymakers, academics, business leaders, and innovators from all over the world. Over the course of five plenary sessions, 60 concurrent sessions, and multiple keynote addresses, participants discussed visions, strategies, and experiences in assets practice, policy, and research.
Moderated by Carol Wayman, Policy Director of CFED, The “Make it Happen: Asset Building for All Strategy Session” featured Mensah and J. Mark Iwry, Senior Adviser to the Secretary and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Retirement and Health Policy at the U.S. Treasury. Mensah set the tone by highlighting how the Obama Administration’s commitment to enacting opportunities to build a save and invest economy from birth through retirement presents an exceptional moment in America’s savings system. Mensah discussed how, at a minimal expense, policymakers and legislators could revolutionize America’s savings and investing system with automation and savings matches to create a world where nearly every American can have a savings and investment account. Iwry supplemented Mensah’s vision with an in-depth explanation of how two proposed policies, the Automatic IRA and the expanded Saver’s Credit, can expand America’s savings structure through workplace plans.
To learn more about CFED’s 2010 Assets Learning Conference click here.
