When the Aspen Institute Financial Security Program convened the inaugural Aspen Leadership Forum on Retirement Savings in 2017, the retirement landscape looked far different than it does today. That was made evident when yet another diverse group gathered in Irvington, Virginia, in May 2024 for the eighth installment of what was conceived to be a decade-long dialogue about the barriers to an inclusive retirement savings system.

At this gathering, participants noted the very real progress the annual meeting and its growing community have helped to usher in:

• Numerous states—with more on the horizon—now operate auto-IRA plans, which allow workers at companies with no retirement plans to save via payroll deductions. Thanks to automatic enrollment, hundreds of thousands of new savers are pouring money into these accounts, spurring further growth of private plans in the process.
• Workplace emergency savings accounts have taken a promising step forward since the passage of federal rules that allow employers to automatically enroll employees in pension-linked versions of these accounts. 
• Congress has passed two major retirement bills since 2019 aimed at enhancing Americans’ long-term financial security—and others are percolating. 
• New data-gathering efforts are producing insights into the benefits and shortcomings of employer-based retirement savings plans for employees in different demographic groups, in so doing revealing the ways that these plans do not work for everyone. 
• Business leaders are increasingly recognizing—and calling attention to—the weaknesses of the current system. 

And yet. 

Today, tens of millions of Americans continue to lack access to a retirement savings plan through their jobs. Others who do have access to such plans aren’t saving nearly enough to enjoy real security in retirement. And racial gaps in access, overall wealth, and retirement savings persist.

The challenge, then, to the 60-plus leaders from industry, government, academia, consumer advocacy, and beyond at the 2024 Forum, was to think even bigger. So tasked, and with the 50th anniversary of ERISA (the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974), the landmark legislation that governs private retirement plans, as a backdrop, participants assessed both the progress and ongoing gaps and sought to identify the tools, policies, financial products, and structures that might further expand retirement security and wealth building for all Americans.

Homing in on three elements of a financial inclusion framework—access to, usage of, and outcomes from high-quality financial tools—those in attendance offered myriad potential solutions, including some wholly fresh ideas. But their discussions also revealed many crucial issues that remain to be addressed. Among them:

• How can the system balance households’ periodic need for immediate cash with the necessity of leaving savings untouched and invested in capital markets for the long term? 
• Is the answer more types of accounts or a more streamlined system?
• Once workers retire, can income security leave room for flexibility? 
• Must we separate retirement security from retirement savings? 
• And, most fundamentally, should the existing system be retrofitted or should a new system be built from scratch?

In the end, three days of frank and robust dialogue under Chatham House Rule highlighted specific areas of focus, crystallizing actionable next steps while raising still more questions. Together, they represent opportunities and challenges for the retirement community—and for the nation as a whole.

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Acknowledgments

We are pleased to have AARP, BlackRock, Prudential, Betterment, Edward Jones, Guideline, H&R Block, and T. Rowe Price as partners in sponsoring the Aspen Leadership Forum on Retirement Savings. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this report—as well as any errors—are Aspen FSP’s alone and do not necessarily represent the views of its funders.