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CUNA Regulatory Comment Call

June 16, 2005

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

• The U.S. Department of Labor has released a Request for Information for the purpose of developing a comprehensive agenda for the third National Summit on Retirement Savings. The Summit is tentatively planned for March 2006.
• The goals of the Summit are to:
  (1) Advance the public's knowledge and understanding of retirement savings and its critical importance to the future well-being of workers and their families.
  (2) Facilitate the development of a broad-based, public education program to encourage and enhance individual commitment to a personal retirement savings strategy.
  (3) Develop recommendations for additional research, reforms and action in the field of private pensions and individual retirement savings.
• The Department of Labor wants to develop an agenda that builds on the primary recommendations for national retirement savings education programs presented at the earlier National Summits. The agency is asking for input on certain specific issues, which are included in the section below titled Topics to Consider in the Request for Information.
• Comments are due to the Department of Labor by July 5, 2005. Please send your comments to CUNA by June 27, 2005. Please feel free to fax your responses to CUNA at 202-638-7052; e-mail them to Associate General Counsel Mary Dunn at mdunn@cuna.com or to Senior Regulatory Counsel Catherine Orr at corr@cuna.com; or mail them to Mary or Catherine in c/o CUNA's Regulatory Advocacy Department, 601 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, 6th Floor - South Building, Washington, DC 20004. You may also contact us at 800-356-9655, ext. 6743, if you would like a copy of the Request for Information, or you may access it here.

BACKGROUND

• The Savings Are Vital to Everyone's Retirement (SAVER) Act of 1997 added a new section to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) calling for the convening of National Summits on Retirement Savings (National Summits).
• The purposes of the National Summits are:
  (1) To increase the public awareness of the value of personal savings for retirement;
  (2) To advance the public's knowledge and understanding of retirement savings and its critical importance to the future well-being of American workers and their families;
  (3) To facilitate the development of a broad-based, public education program to encourage individual commitment to a personal retirement savings strategy;
  (4) To identify the problems workers have in setting aside adequate savings for retirement
  ; (5) To identify the barriers that employers, especially small employers, face in assisting their workers in saving for retirement;
  (6) To examine the impact and effectiveness of individual employers in promoting personal savings for retirement among their workers and workers' participation in company savings options;
  (7) To examine the impact and effectiveness of government programs at the Federal, State, and local levels in educating the public about and encouraging retirement savings;
  (8) To develop comprehensive recommendations for government and private sector actions to promote pensions and individual retirement savings; and
  (9) To develop recommendations for the coordination of retirement savings initiatives among the Federal, State, and local governments.
• The SAVER Act called for the convening of three National Summits to be planned and conducted by the Department of Labor. The first was held on June 4-5, 1998, in Washington, DC. The second Summit was held on February 28-March 1, 2002. CUNA President and CEO Dan Mica was selected as a delegate to the second Summit. The SAVER Act requires the Secretary of Labor, following each Summit, to prepare a report describing the Summit's activities and to submit it to the President and Congressional leaders. The reports are available on the Department of Labor’s website.

1. Suggested topics for discussing the current state of retirement savings education in America and its effect on the national retirement savings rate.
   
   

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2. Ideas about programs and activities that would effectively reach the general public and, more specifically, low-income workers, women, small business owners, minorities, youth, and older workers.
   
   

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3. Success stories and model programs that have used effective communication techniques to educate low-income workers, women, minority groups, youth, and older workers about the need to save and steps that should be taken to save for retirement.
   
   

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4. Measurement techniques used to assess the effectiveness of public outreach and media efforts regarding retirement savings.
   
   

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5. Ideas for creating new partnerships among public and private sector organizations to enhance existing programs for encouraging retirement savings.
   
   

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6. Other comments?
   
   

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