Bonus: Episodes Recap with Michael Kreps
The Accidental Plan Sponsor®
In the second half of season two, Josh and co-host Michael Kreps explored different ideas to reshape our country’s retirement system. Listen to their recap and reflections on the various approaches and proposals.
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Season 2 Episode 8: Non-Accidental Plan Sponsors
The Accidental Plan Sponsor®
As we wrap up season 2 of the podcast, Josh Cohen and guest co-host Michael Kreps come full circle to discuss alternative approaches to the U.S.’s employer-based retirement system. Instead of employers playing the role of the plan sponsor, what if the Federal Government stepped in? Or, what about the private sector? We discussed the proposed Retirement Savings for American Act, Pooled Employers Plans (PEPs) and much more. Josh and Michael are joined by two prominent influencers in the retirement space: Teresa Ghilarducci, professor of economics at The New School for Social Research, and Rick...
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Season 2 Episode 7: The Implementers
The Accidental Plan Sponsor®
Josh Cohen and guest co-host Michael Kreps have been telling the story of how some policy makers, think tanks, industry groups and politicians worked to address some of the gaps in our retirement system. One of those gaps is the millions of Americans that don’t have access to workplace savings plans. In this episode, they focus on the work being done at the state level and the process of moving from policy design and legislation, to implementation. They speak with two individuals who have been instrumental in getting these plans implemented: Katie Selenski, executive director...
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Season 2 Episode 6: Laboratories of Democracy
The Accidental Plan Sponsor®
In the 1932 Supreme Court ruling, Justice Louis Brandeis popularized the phrase “laboratories of democracy“ to describe how “a single courageous state may, if its citizen choose, serve as a laboratory and try novel social and economic experience without risk to the rest of the country.” Many states have looked to become laboratories to address some of the gaps in the US current retirement system that federal policy hasn’t yet been able to successfully solve. Josh Cohen and guest co-host Michael Kreps talk to two early experimenters, Hank Kim and Daniel Biss, to learn from...
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Season 2 Episode 5: This Odd Couple’s Auto IRA Proposal
The Accidental Plan Sponsor®
The Auto IRA concept has been one of the most influential proposals to address gaps in the current US retirement system, namely the persistent coverage gap for small private-sector employers. Josh and guest co-host for the next few episodes, Michael Kreps, discuss the genesis of auto-IRAs with two individuals from different political backgrounds who came together to conceive and promote the proposal and implementation efforts: guests David John and Mark Iwry. David is a Senior Policy Advisor at the AARP Public Policy Institute and the Deputy Director for the Retirement...
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Season 2 Mid-season Trailer
The Accidental Plan Sponsor®
For the second half of season 2, Josh Cohen will be joined by guest co-host Michael Kreps, Principal at Groom Law Group, to dissect the biggest questions and potential solutions that are being worked on in the retirement space.
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Bonus: Perspectives from Josh’s Global Colleagues
The Accidental Plan Sponsor®
Josh gets on the ground insights from three colleagues in PGIM’s Institutional Relationship Group: Ben Price, Howard Nowell, and Philip Hsin.
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Bonus: Meet Josh’s New Boss
The Accidental Plan Sponsor®
Michael Miller, a long-time industry veteran and Head of PGIM DC Solutions, joins Josh to share how he got into the retirement space and some insightful perspectives on DC trends and pressing issues.
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Bonus: Josh’s Key Takeaways: Non-US Retirement Systems
The Accidental Plan Sponsor®
In the first half of season 2, Josh traveled the globe to hear from local experts about how their countries tackled the challenge of building a retirement system. Listen to Josh’s reflections on lessons learned and common themes.
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Bonus: Global Episodes Recap with John Mitchem
The Accidental Plan Sponsor®
John Mitchem, global financial consultant and retirement expert, joins Josh to discuss episodes from the first half of season 2 while weaving in his experiences and expertise.
info_outlineHere’s what you need to know about Australia’s Retirement System: It’s really big. It’s government mandated. It’s privately run. It’s really sophisticated.
Still curious? Host Josh Cohen’s two guests have played meaningful roles in the system’s development from the highest levels of government and industry. The Honorable Nick Sherry started one of the first modern Superannuation Funds in Australia and then went to be the leading minister in the government overseeing the industry. Ian Silk ran the largest Super Fund called Australian Super. There’s a lot we can learn from their experiences.
Key Takeaways:
[:19] Josh Cohen, your host, introduces today’s topic: Australia and their compulsory retirement system with very sophisticated investments that cause admiration worldwide.
[2:30] Josh is accompanied by two experts to dive deep into the origin and evolution of the Australian retirement system.
[2:55] Nick Sherry joins the conversation. He is a former Australian politician who served as a member of the Australian Senate for the state of Tasmania from 1990 until 2012, Sherry was sworn in as the Assistant Treasurer in 2009, after serving as the first Australian Minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law.
[4:39] Nick shares how he accidentally got involved in the retirement space.
[5:45] Nick explains how Australia began to shape a new retirement policy.
[6:40] Josh describes how the industrial awards system work along with the social wage.
[7:56] Nick shares the development of the House Plus Fund.
[9:10] Nick explains the administrative hassles they had to overcome in the late 80s’.
[10:09] Nick becomes in charge of an additional pension reform when he just assumed the role as a Senate for the state of Tasmania.
[12:32] Nick talks about initiating the Cooper review.
[13:25] What happens at retirement?
[14:01] Nick speaks about his life now that he is retired but still very active!
[14:38] Josh explains what fund mergers are about.
[15: 23] Ian Silk, Chief Executive at AustralianSuper, joins the conversation by providing answers about how Fund mergers work in Australia.
[16:47] Ian talks about his vast experience in the field of funds.
[17:18] Ian dives deep into the five sectors the retirement providers fall into.
[18:30] Ian describes two reasons why the owners have decided not to run their own plans.
[20:05] Compulsion arrived to change how things were doing in regards to retirement.
[20:34] An important feature of the Australian retirement system: An employer can run his/her own plan or pick a super plan as the default for his/her workers. There is always a default investment option if the employer doesn’t make an election.
[21:28] Josh talks about Industry funds that arise in the late 1980s and Ian expands on the topic.
[23:39] Josh introduces the fourth sector: The retail sector.
[25:32] Ian explains how people took their funds from retail to industry.
[25:43] The fifth sector is called the Self Managed Super, where people decide to run their own Super. Ian describes the one big driver of its popularity.
[26:58] Ian explains how Australian Super originated and how it scaled.
[28:49] The area of investing innovation is the one that is admired by many in Australian
Super. Ian describes this particular feature of the Australian Super.
[30:02] Ian shares what improvements could be done to an already sophisticated Australian retirement system.
[31:03] Ian talks about the secret to the success of the Australian retirement system.
[32:11] Ian shares the proudest moment of his career, realizing that low to middle-income workers in Australia have something significant to look forward to in retirement that wasn’t the case 30 to 40 years ago.
[33:23] Josh shares his key takeaways from the amazing conversations with Nick Sherry and Ian Silk.
[34:55] Stayed tuned for the next episode: The UK edition.
Thank you for tuning in. If you liked what you heard, please subscribe and leave us a review wherever you listen to your podcasts.
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Mentioned in this episode:
More about Nick Sherry
More about Ian Silk