Mark Your Calendars!

Social media routinely reminds me that I’m teetering on the brink of overlooking key remembrances—days in the year to honor sons, daughters, puppies, dogs, kittens, and…well, you name it. And we have whole months set aside to acknowledge the contributions of women, black history, and Hispanic heritage—but there’s another you might have missed…

As it turns out, October is National Retirement Security Month—a “national effort to raise public awareness about the importance of saving for retirement.” More specifically, to provide an opportunity for employees to reflect on their personal retirement goals and determine if they're on target to reach those goals—and for those who work with those employees to help them do so.

Now, while the need isn’t new, the calendar acknowledgement is, at least relatively so. The notion was raised in 2006 by then-Sens. Gordon Smith (R-OR) and Kent Conrad (D-ND)—though at that time it was “just” a week. However, in 2020, the National Association of Government Defined Contribution Administrators took it even further and updated its legislative priority to advocate to change it to National Retirement Security Month, instead of only the week.   

That said—and despite the hard work, talented designs, and sponsorship of a number of large and reputable financial services organizations, I suspect many of you haven’t even heard of it. More’s the pity.

Key Objectives

Traditionally, the week is focused on three key objectives:

• making employees more aware of how critical it is to save now for their financial future;
• promoting the benefits of getting started saving for retirement today; and
• encouraging employees to take full advantage of their employer-sponsored plans by increasing their contributions.

Now, if you’re reading this (and you are, aren’t you?), odds are that you’re all too aware of the challenges that confront our nation’s retirement savings system. I’d go so far as to wager that just about everybody taking the time to read this post thinks about those items every working day, and doubtless spends a good part of their week trying to advance those causes—so, what’s the point of a month devoted to that emphasis?

What If?

The point, of course, is not for us—but for those who don’t have these issues on their mind every day. Because, even if we should be thinking about this every day of the year, special “events” like National Retirement Security Month give those of us who do a chance to, as a collective group of professionals, remind those who don’t of the importance of thoughtful preparations for retirement.

Better still, with the plan design improvements available today, you might only need one week—or one hour—of getting an individual—or group of individuals—to think about those messages.

Consider, for example, what if that period of focus got an individual (or, better still, a group of individuals) to enroll in their workplace retirement plan? What if it led an employer to embrace automatic enrollment, or, for those who are already enrolled, to increase the default contribution rate, or to reenroll those who have opted out of participation in the past? What if that focus prompted those who are already participating to increase their deferral rate (on their own), or to boost that rate so that they got the full benefit of the employer match? And what if that period of focus—or the actions above—led workers to stop and actually figure out how much they might need to save to sustain their retirement?

What if, indeed? 

- Nevin E. Adams, JD