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Graff Reaffirms Support for Real Solutions to Retirement Issues

In an exclusive interview with Christopher Carosa of FiduciaryNews, ASPPA Executive Director/CEO Brian Graff reaffirms his strong support, and that of ASPPA and its sister organizations, for real and tangible action to ensure a secure retirement for working Americans. 

Graff tells Carosa that a bigger threat to retirement saving than changes to the federal tax treatment of retirement plans and the definition of a fiduciary is the failure of federal policymakers to understand that retirement policy needs to be considered from a holistic, rather than parochial, perspective. He cites as an example a tax committee looking at retirement policy as a pure tax policy analysis and not thinking about what it means for retirement. “What’s wrong is that this is consistent across the board,” says Graff. 

In the wide-ranging interview, Graff addresses other key points: 

  • A critically important way to address the coverage challenge is for more people to have access to a retirement plan through their employers. 
  • Policymakers do not appreciate the value advisors bring to both plan sponsors and participants, which is why there is a debate about the fiduciary standard. 
  • There are critics of the markets who argue that we would be all be better off in index funds. Graff points out that index funds do not outperform riskier investments all the time, and enacting a law requiring them would convey the message that the federal government endorses them. “Today, most plans offer both, because the marketplace is demanding it. The last thing we need is the government deciding where to invest,” says Graff. 
  • There seems to be no question the Department of Labor will move forward with its revised definition of a fiduciary. “It’s a question of when, not if,” Graff says, noting that ASPPA expects that the new definition will dramatically alter the landscape. 
  • Proposals to foster saving from an early age, such as creating a “child IRA,” are so mired in the current political and social controversy over who benefits from policies and regulations that they will “wither on the vine” until the mindset that fuels such acrimonious debate changes. 

 “Retirement is the number one issue,” Graff believes. “My feeling is that retirement issues will be with us for at least next two decades. So hold on to your hats.” 

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John Iekel is Senior Writer at ASPPA, as well as Editor of the ASPPA Net and NTSA Net web portals.