How did President Obama do with retirement issues?
Analysis of his accomplishments (and disappointments) has begun, with the DOL’s fiduciary rule, regulations to encourage lifetime income in 401ks, and government “encouraged” myRAs listed as wins by CBS.
The network had “expanding retirement plan coverage” and “a comprehensive retirement policy” down as fails, diplomatically referring to them as unfinished business.
“About half of American workers aren’t covered by a retirement plan at work, a major shortcoming of America’s retirement system,” it said. “In early 2016, Obama submitted a proposal to Congress to increase the number of Americans eligible for work-based retirement plans by expanding the use of so-called multiple employer plans. Despite bipartisan support, the Retirement Enhancement and Savings Act of 2016 didn’t clear the Senate last year. “
It also noted the tenuous future of the fiduciary rule, writing, “While financial institutions are scrambling to comply with these regulations as of early 2017, their fate is in doubt because some advisers and politicians are calling on Mr. Trump to repeal these regulations.”
Reuters gave the president and overall grade of a B on his efforts to increase retirement savings for workers.
“Earlier, the president proposed requiring most employers to offer a retirement saving plan to workers – the auto-IRA,” according to the news service. “But the plan’s mandatory participation feature made it dead on arrival for Republicans in Congress, who wanted nothing to do with anything featuring required participation after the bloody battle over the ACA.”
Reuters quoted Joshua Gotbaum, a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution who served as director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation during the Obama years, as claiming some sort of mandatory savings plan “would have been the largest expansion of retirement coverage in our history.”
Tellingly, Gotbaum added that if enough states create auto-401k and IRA programs of their own, something that’s currently happening, “local plans could yet be rolled up in a single, unified national program.”
With more than 20 years serving financial markets, John Sullivan is the former editor-in-chief of Investment Advisor magazine and retirement editor of ThinkAdvisor.com. Sullivan is also the former editor of Boomer Market Advisor and Bank Advisor magazines, and has a background in the insurance and investment industries in addition to his journalism roots.
