Let’s Save Retirement: Repairing America’s Broken System of Funding Workers’ Retirement

Abstract

Far too few American workers can look forward to financial independence as they age. Many will be obliged to extend their working lives, some into their seventies. A patchwork of defined contribution (DC) retirement plans now serve as the primary retirement saving vehicle in the private sector, but they are complex, costly, and challenging for employers and employees to manage.

This article presents a comprehensive set of recommendations for a unified private DC pension system to cover all working Americans, with a single set of rules and without cost to the government. A key part is the creation of broadly diversified trusteed retirement funds (TRFs), whose sponsors are trustees, with fiduciary responsibilities. Employee contributions will automatically go into a broadly diversified TRF unless the employee either opts out or selects a preferred TRF or the employer already sponsors a defined benefit (DB) pension plan. TRFs will relieve employers from fiduciary responsibility for all future DC contributions.

To protect retirees from inflation, longevity, and asset price volatility risk, retirees will be encouraged to use their TRF savings to buy either an immediate or deferred indexed annuity. A new government agency, the Federal Longevity Insurance Administration, will enable private insurance companies to provide low-cost annuities.