Pooled Plans, Auto-Enrollment for Retirement Touted to Senators

The U.S. could achieve a national framework for universal retirement coverage with a recent law, existing legislative policy proposals, and a patchwork of state mandates that require private-sector participation, witnesses told a Senate committee.

Tools to aid small businesses with setting up pooled retirement plans along with automatic enrollment provisions in the Securing a Strong Retirement Act (H.R. 2954) could expand retirement coverage to many workers who aren’t already covered by state-backed automatic-individual retirement accounts, Shai Akabas, director of economic policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, said in testimony to the Senate Health, Education, Labor and ...