The Aspen Institute

Families in California are facing a deepening retirement crisis, with nearly half of the state’s workforce currently on track to retire with incomes below 200% of the federal poverty line (about $22,000 a year). Families need to be able to save more as they plan for the future. A wealth of research has clearly demonstrated that access to a retirement plan at work is the best way to build sufficient savings and ensure a secure retirement. Yet in California, an estimated 7.5 million workers do not have access to a retirement plan offered by their employer.

In response, California created the Secure Choice Retirement Savings Investment Board in 2012, which has been tasked with determining the feasibility of establishing a retirement savings program for private sector employees – whose employers do not offer a retirement program. As part of this effort, The Aspen Institute’s Initiative on Financial Security, convened an event, “Investment Products and Program Design: How to Maximize Participation, Contribution Rates, and Financial Security in Retirement” which featured a number of prominent experts in the field in a pair of panel discussions. The first panel explored how the principles of behavioral economics can inform the key elements of sound program design for California, and also considered how demographics and other factors are likely to impact participants. The second tapped into deep expertise in the financial industry and advocacy community on lessons learned from current product design efforts. The goal of this session was to identify the most important design features for the target population of Secure Choice and the principal challenges associated with incorporating them into actual plans.

Agenda:

9:00AM-9:25AM | Opening Remarks

· The Honorable John Chiang, California State Treasurer
· Ida Rademacher, Executive Director, Aspen Institute Initiative on Financial Security
· The Honorable Kevin de León, Senate President pro Tempore, California State Senate

9:25AM-9:40AM | Keynote Address

· The Honorable J. Mark Iwry, Senior Advisor to the Secretary and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Retirement and Health Policy, U.S. Department of the Treasury
9:45AM-10:45AM | Panel 1: Principles of Behavioral Economics and Plan Design

· Dr. James Choi, Professor of Finance, Yale School of Management (slides)
· Dr. Geoffrey Sanzenbacher, Research Economist, Center for Retirement Research, Boston College (slides)
· Dr. Fernando Torres-Gil, Director, Center for Policy Research on Aging, UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs
· Moderator: Ida Rademacher, Aspen IFS
11:00AM-12:00PM | Panel 2: Lessons and Best Practices for Plan Design

· David John, Senior Strategic Policy Advisor, AARP (slides)
· Bennett Kleinberg, Vice President for Institutional Investment Solutions, Prudential Retirement (slides)
· Judy Miller, Director of Retirement Policy, American Retirement Association (slides)
· Moderator: Jeremy Smith, Associate Director, Aspen IFS

Families in California are facing a deepening retirement crisis, with nearly half of the state’s workforce currently on track to retire with incomes below 200% of the federal poverty line (about $22,000 a year). In response, California created the Secure Choice Retirement Savings Investment Board in 2012, which has been tasked with determining the feasibility of establishing a retirement savings program for private sector employees – whose employers do not offer a retirement program. As part of this effort, The Aspen Institute’s Initiative on Financial Security, will convene an event, “Investment Products and Program Design: How to Maximize Participation, Contribution Rates, and Financial Security in Retirement” which will feature a number of prominent experts in the field.

Register Here