John Sullivan
By John Sullivan 4/25/2023
A bill to establish the Minnesota Secure Choice Retirement Program (HF 782), a state-sponsored auto-IRA, passed through the Ways and Means Committee in the Minnesota House on Monday with the bill’s author praising “nerdy group” American Retirement Association (ARA) for its help and support.
Rep....
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By John Sullivan 4/17/2023
The United States has the most liquid retirement savings system among developed countries, and participants take full advantage, a problem for long-term saving and accumulation, which is the system’s intended effect.
Surprisingly, researchers found that behavioral rather than economic factors...
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By John Sullivan 4/12/2023
Vermont is the latest state to push for a mandatory auto-IRA for uncovered workers and is close to getting its wish.
The Green Mountain State’s Senate swiftly and unanimously passed the VTSaves public retirement initiative on Thursday, which was introduced with the support of AARP in March. ...
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By John Sullivan 4/12/2023
On April 6, the Treasury Department and IRS released a Strategic Operating Plan detailing how new funding and thousands of new hires will be applied, saying it will provide taxpayers with “world-class customer service and reduce the deficit by hundreds of billions [of dollars].”
The resources —...
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By John Sullivan 4/10/2023
Will Hansen, Chief Government Affairs Officer for the American Retirement Association, details to John Sullivan what’s going on in Washington. Could the 401(k) system move from the private sector to Treasury?
How do provisions in SECURE 2.0 help Americans? Hansen also details what ARA is doing to...
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By John Sullivan 3/27/2023
The ink isn’t dry on SECURE 2.0, but it isn’t preventing high-profile behavioral economist Shlomo Benartzi, Ph.D., from looking ahead to what’s next. It’s what he does.
“While Secure 2.0 actually made great progress, I’m thinking about what should be in Secure 3.0,” Benartzi, Distinguished Senior...
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By John Sullivan 3/20/2023
In a move to encourage choice in retirement saving, President Biden vetoed a measure on March 20 that the administration says would block plan fiduciaries from freely considering the best interest of workers and savers in retirement plan investment offerings.
The veto, the Administration’s first...
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By John Sullivan 3/7/2023
I am incredibly excited to join the American Retirement Association (ARA), specifically the American Society of Enrolled Actuaries (ASEA), as Chief Content Officer. The association and society are well-known for their professionalism, insight, and execution.
Filling the void left by former Chief...
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By John Sullivan 3/6/2023
Financial literacy, financial wellness, and now …longevity literacy.
It’s the latest phrase in the fight to raise awareness of — and preparation for — later-in-life issues, financial, medical, and otherwise, and an idea the TIAA Institute hit upon during its research.
“When we think about...
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By John Sullivan 3/2/2023
Despite (or maybe because of) SECURE 2.0’s passage, 401(k)s face increasing attacks, with the latest salvo coming from an opinion piece published in Politico.
Social Security is just one part of the retirement system, notes the piece, provocatively titled “Before Slashing Social Security, Cut 401(...
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By John Sullivan 2/27/2023
We thought it was a sign of bipartisan hope in an increasingly divided Congress. Recently, President Biden nominated Andrew Biggs, a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute known for his contrarian retirement takes and criticism of financial media sensationalism, to the Social Security...
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By John Sullivan 2/21/2023
Labor Secretary Marty Walsh confirmed expectations that he will leave the Biden Administration for the private sector. Walsh will join the NHL Players Association (NHLPA) as its executive director. In a sign of the times, he took to Twitter on Thursday to elaborate on his decision.
“Earlier this...
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By John Sullivan 2/17/2023
It’s the time of year for another email from Scott Albert, a spammy-sounding name that’s actually a real person—a dedicated public servant at the Department of Labor (DOL).
Albert, a Qualified Pension Administrator (QPA) and Chief of the DOL’s Division of Reporting Compliance, sends 20,000-plus...
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By John Sullivan 2/16/2023
On Feb. 14, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) closed the comment period for its controversial late-processing proposed rule to combat an issue first raised nearly 20 years ago.
The proposal would require open-end funds to use “swing pricing,” the method to allocate costs from inflows...
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By John Sullivan 2/15/2023
A financial services trade group prevailed Monday in a key portion of its suit against the Department of Labor's fiduciary guidance involving rollovers.
The United States District Court’s Middle District of Florida sided with the American Securities Association. It ruled that the DOL overstepped...
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By John Sullivan 2/13/2023
High-profile retirement income researcher David Blanchett has come to the defense of Monte Carlo analysis, noting economist John Maynard Keynes’s famous quote that he’d prefer to be “vaguely right than precisely wrong.”
Calling it a powerful tool for good that provides valuable information about...
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By John Sullivan 2/13/2023
Not wanting to appear overly negative, and emphasizing she would focus on solutions, American Retirement Association (ARA) member Apryl Pope, co-founder of Cincinnati-based Retirement Plan Partners, delivered stark statistics about the state of retirement saving for traditionally marginalized...
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By John Sullivan 2/8/2023
Fresh from the heels of the red state lawsuit filing to prevent the Department of Labor from implementing its new rule related to environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing, two members of Congress announced they’ll reintroduce a Congressional Review Act (CRA) measure to nullify its use...
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By John Sullivan 2/7/2023
Labor Secretary Marty Walsh is leaving the Biden Administration for the private sector as part of a broader cabinet shakeup in preparation for a possible 2024 Biden reelection run.
Politico, citing hockey website The Daily Faceoff, said Walsh would leave to run the NHL Players Association,...
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By John Sullivan 2/7/2023
The hyper-partisan polarization over environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing strategies continued Monday with news of a growing “war” between GOP House leadership and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. While the Chamber’s endorsement of Democrats in the midterms was primarily to blame, its...
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