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Practice Management

Making a Difference

We are living through an extraordinary time in human existence—and, sadly, some aren’t living through it. 

Americans deal with personal natural tragedies every day—wildfires, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, and earthquakes. We’ve also dealt with volatile markets, terrifying periods like the 2008 financial crisis, and times like 9/11 that undermined not only our lives and livelihood, but our sense of safety and security.

It’s too soon to know what the impact of today’s events will be—how long our lives and life will be impacted. But the other day as I was explaining to a reporter the relief measures we have pressed, and others we are still pressing for, I couldn’t help but be struck by the irony of trying to make it easier for workers to draw down their retirement savings early—and of working for ways to provide employers breathing room when it comes to making those essential matching contributions—when nearly every day of my professional life has been spent encouraging folks to do just the opposite—to put more money in, and to delay taking it out, of their retirement savings. This may not be the reason that these monies were set aside, but there’s not much point in saving for retirement if you can’t get to retirement. 

As with many of you, we are marking weeks of being “out” of the office. As sacrifices go, working from home, staying inside, avoiding contact and washing hands (what still seems a ridiculous number of times a day) seems a pretty modest contribution to this effort. 

But our real contribution—like yours—is focusing on minimizing the impact of that second wave—not of illness, but of the financial consequences of that illness. That has meant advocating on behalf of easing access to those funds by participants, while incorporating common sense guardrails that take into account the unique operational aspects of these times.[1] It has meant continuing to press forward on rational updates to long-term reforms like electronic disclosure. And it has meant that we are looking ahead to, and working to stave off, future damage from extreme responses, such as plan termination.

There will come a time, of course, for assessing the damage of COVID-19, both in terms of human life and capital. Doubtless that, and the associated market volatility, will take a toll both physical and emotional for years to come. 

As we sit here today, however, it’s worth noting that our private retirement system is not just how America saves—it’s going to make a difference in how America lives.

Footnotes

[i] Part of that has been working with members to evaluate and communicate the impact, and to help you do so with your plan sponsor clients and prospects.