retirement

Jan. 20, 2010

Allowing Automatic Enrollment in Employee Retirement Plans

Rich Jones
Director of Policy and Research
The Bell Policy Center

Summary

A financially secure and healthy retirement is our ninth and final gateway to a life of opportunity. A secure and healthy retirement should be the reward for a life of hard work and contribution to family and community.

Articles: Bell updates Working Poor families indicators, Governor, Legislature hit 25 homers for opportunity, Fewer kids covered by health insurance, U.S. hosts 11 million undocumented immigrants, Poor families pay more for basic goods and services, Incentives increase retirement saving, Bell research cited in national report on TABOR

By showing how very reliant the elderly are on Social Security income, these data demonstrate that the majority of the elderly can ill-afford to gamble with their retirement income now or in the future. Ending up on the losing side of this bet would have a devastating impact on their quality of life.

A Boulder Daily Camera commentary summarizing the 2005 State of Opportunity Report.

A Boulder Daily Camera commentary outlining the problems with the country's main mechanisms for saving for retirement - Social Security, company pensions and personal savings accounts - and proposing some solutions to improve the system.

The Legislature should create Colorado Voluntary Pension Accounts to provide access to retirement plans for all Coloradans. These plans would reduce the cost and complexity of offering pension plans for small employers and would be portable, allowing workers to contribute to the same account from each job they hold in Colorado