D.C. Pension Geeks

How do you expand retirement plan coverage for workers at scale (close the coverage gap), leverage the behavioral benefits of payroll deduction, and not place an undue burden on employers? One solution is increasingly effective—state-facilitated plans.

Retirement policy veteran John Scott, Project Director, Retirement Savings with The Pew Charitable Trusts, joins American Retirement Association CEO Brian Graff to discuss how the programs are performing, their impact and the surprising stats fueling their growth.

Talk about a timely topic—the passage and adoption of state-facilitated retirement savings programs (usually auto-IRAs) continues, with the latest, Minnesota, happening in mid-May.

It’s something that the Center for Retirement Initiatives (CRI) at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy was designed specifically to help advocate for, according to Angela M. Antonelli, its executive director. Few are more informed, or involved, with the issue of state-based plans, and she joins American Retirement Association CEO Brian Graff on the latest episode of DC Pension Geeks.

Debt limits, ESG, presidential vetoes—how in the world did SECURE 2.0 pass in an overwhelmingly (and increasingly) partisan Washington? Where does retirement policy go from here, and what about that MAJOR retirement policy proposal that some members of Congress are considering right now—what are its prospects in the current Congress?

Drew Crouch, Senior Tax and ERISA Counsel at Senate Finance Committee, joins American Retirement Association Brian Graff to answer these questions and more. It’s a fascinating discussion you won’t want to miss.

What is on the tax policy agenda for the Treasury Department, and what are its priorities? What about the technical correction in SECURE 2.0 needed for Roth catchup provisions?

And, more basically, how is a regulation born—the process for developing a regulation and the relative roles of the Treasury versus the IRS, specifically, and its chief counsel? You would be surprised how few people understand this.

Thankfully, American Retirement Association CEO Brian Graff speaks with Carol Weiser, Benefits Tax Counsel for the Department of Treasury, to answer these questions and more.

Brian Graff continues his exclusive discussion with the Department of Labor’s Tim Hauser about what the Biden Administration rule really means for the retirement plan space.

After putting its own stamp on the 2020 ESG rule issued by the Trump Administration, the Biden Administration found itself the target of lawsuits and legislation aimed at slowing ESG’s roll.

With talk of Biden vetoing a bill meant to block the latest ESG rules implementation, we decided to go straight to the source. American Retirement Association CEO Brian Graff recently sat down with the Employee Benefits Security Administration’s Tim Hauser to explore the implications and implementation of this new rule. He cuts through the partisan hype to reveal the common sense thinking behind the latest action.