When ‘More’ Retirement Readiness Is (Much) Less
A new study shows how a proposed government-run retirement program said to increase coverage could actually undermine the nation’s retirement readiness. The report — by Morningstar’s Spencer Look and Jack VanDerhei (yes, that Jack VanDerhei) — considers the potential effects of the Retirement Savings for Americans Act (RSAA) on retirement-income adequacy for Generation Z and millennial workers. The proposed legislation — which aims to expand retirement coverage for American workers by creating a federal retirement plan for those not covered through their employer — has been introduced in both the House and the Senate. [i] The legislation has been positioned as a means of helping close the coverage gap — of creating not only an opportunity for those without access to a retirement plan at work to save for retirement, but to receive the incentive of a matching contribution from the federal government. How then, would such a proposal undermine the natio...