In April 2009, Pamela Perun, policy director of the Initiative on Financial Security, offered her insight on the current crisis and its effect on retirement savings this past month at an event titled, “Retirement Crisis: Now What?” Hosted by AXA Equitable, the panel featured a host of thought leaders from the retirement savings community including, Peter Brady, Chief Economist of the Investment Company Institute, Eric Chaney, Chief Economist with the AXA Group, and Dallas Salisbury, CEO of the Employee Benefits Research Institute.
In her remarks, Ms. Perun was quick to point out the chronic deficiencies of America’s savings culture. “People start saving too late…We need a savings system that covers people from birth to death,” she cautioned. Focusing on where the money goes and how the money grows, Ms. Perun suggested that a new system of savings should be structured in light of the following five guiding principles: 1) Lifelong; 2) Universal; 3) Simple; 4) Incentivized; and 5) Widely-marketed. Ms. Perun went on to detail the lifecycle system, Savings for Life, developed by Aspen IFS after years of research with industry counsel. “If someone were to ask us what must be done to fix the savings and investment crisis – and we hope they do – here is what we would say. It’s all laid out in our report, Savings for Life.”
To read additional coverage of the event click here.
