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_outlineOften retirement policies in a country are a result of a patchwork of initiatives over time. Wouldn’t it be nice if a country could take more of a blank slate approach?
In this episode, Josh Cohen interviews Helen Dean, CEO of the National Employees Savings Trust, or NEST, which is the largest pension scheme in the United Kingdom based on the number of members. Helen has played a central role over the last two decades in government, and now at NEST, developing and implementing a new retirement approach for the UK. Learn how they borrowed a lot of great ideas from other countries, including the US, to craft a system that may just be a model for other countries in the future.
Key Takeaways:
[:15] Josh Cohen, your host, introduces today’s topic: The evolution of the UK’s retirement system or what Helen Dean likes to call “The biggest social experiment ever”.
[3:18] Helen shares her professional journey which started with her getting a degree in psychology and social policy, and involved working for the DWP
[6:39] The UK did something unique: They created a pension committee with three individuals: a business leader, a trade union leader, and a leading academic.
[8:51] How do you get individuals to save more? Education and advice didn’t get people to save more.
[11:31] Helen shares what her team and she proposed (which was very different from what they saw in the US model), they wanted to require automatic enrolment for all workers.
[19:00] Helen shares how the employer community got on board with NEST, after seeing the benefits for the UK and for their own businesses.
[22:28] Helen shares how they turned again to the US to adopt their ideas for emergency savings.
[23:56] Helen talks about how NEST manages investments for controlling risks and optimizing returns.
[25:18] NEST started to invest in liquid and private assets, high-quality sustainable businesses that assure a good return over the long term.
[28:43] Helen openly shares her thoughts and feelings about her past two decades dedicated to building NEST from scratch, seeing it grow, and witnessing the amazing impact it has had so far.
[31:29] Stay tuned for the next episode where Josh will take the audience to Singapore.
Thank you for tuning in. If you liked what you heard, please subscribe and leave us a review wherever you listen to your podcasts.
Links:
Listen to Season 1 Episode 5: How Target Date Funds and Behavioral Economics Shaped Retirement Plans
Mentioned in this episode:
More about Helen Dean