ERISA: Reflecting on 50 Years and Looking to the Future
In a new Forbes column, NIRS Executive Director Dan Doonan write that major milestones are a good opportunity to pause, reflect, and think about where we are heading. This year is a major milestone for the retirement industry as the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) reaches its 50th anniversary today.
ERISA is the federal law that for the first time set important standards for most voluntarily established retirement and health plans in the private sector to protect individual participants and beneficiaries. Key provisions of ERISA require plans to provide participants with essential plan information; set minimum standards for participation, vesting, benefit accrual, and funding; establish fiduciary responsibilities for those who manage plan assets; and guarantee payment of benefits through the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) for terminated defined benefit pension plans.
There are numerous ERISA successes to celebrate, but there also are challenges associated with the law that can be addressed to help create better retirement outcomes in the future.
Is America’s Retirement System Failing Future Retirees?
In a Forbes column, NIRS Executive Director Dan Doonan writes that as America ages and income inequality deepens, concerns about retirement security are mounting. Some voices, however, indicate that retirement concerns are exaggerated, relying on data indicating that older Baby Boomers have largely fared well in retirement. But new research published in The Journal of Retirement […]
U.S. public policy typically encourages saving. Our retirement system has undergone a major transformation over the past four decades, shifting workers to an individual savings-based system. Public policy supports saving for college costs, health costs, and emergencies, so it seems odd when a specific group of Americans is denied the ability to save, but that […]
National Institute on Retirement Security to Hold Retirement Policy Conference in Washington, D.C.
MEDIA ADVISORY National Institute on Retirement Security to Hold Retirement Policy Conference on March 3 – 4 in Washington, D.C. February 20, 2025, Washington, D.C. – The National Institute on Retirement Security (NIRS) will hold its 16th Annual Retirement Policy Conference, Choices, Challenges, and Opportunities | Strengthening Our Retirement Infrastructure, in Washington, D.C. At the […]
Rhode Island Is The Latest State To Help Americans Lacking A Retirement Plan At Their Job
In a Forbes column, Dan Doonan writes the Rhode Island made news this month when it became the twentieth state to establish a state-facilitated retirement savings program and the seventeenth to do so with an auto-IRA model. This action by the Rhode Island legislature means every state in New England, except New Hampshire, will now […]
