Retirement Savings Policy: Past, Present and Future Tense

This insightful and timely book reviews three critical factors that dominate current discussions of retirement savings policy: the decline of traditional defined benefit plans, the emergence of 401(k) plans as the retirement program of the 21st century, and the pressure, from policymakers, regulators, opinion leaders and from individuals, for changes that will put retirement security within reach of all Americans.

Michael P. Barry examines the key issues of long-term interest rate trends, changes in workforce culture, critical changes in accounting and the burden of federal regulation and the (ever increasing) Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation premium tax. Retirement Savings Policy delves into why the 401(k) plan displaced the defined benefit plan as the plan-of-choice for both employers and employees, the current proposals for change, the competing visions and the theories on which they operate and their practical significance for retirement plan sponsors.