A great deal has changed over the past half-century since President Gerald Ford signed the Employee Retirement Income Security Act into law. Who would have guessed in 1974 that most working Americans would be relying on 401(k) and other defined contribution plans to save for retirement instead of pensions? At that time, it wasn’t so unusual to find someone who retired after 30 years or longer from the first and only job they had ever held, with an engraved gold watch as a parting gift. Fifty years and counting later, ERISA has become the regulatory backbone of the retirement services industry.
Today’s workforce is much more mobile, with the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) estimating that the average American will have 9.9 jobs throughout 45 years of working. This modern trend made it necessary for the private and public sector members who came together at the ERISA 50th Anniversary Symposium & Gala in Washington to work together to create “auto” technology solutions for helping workers keep their 401(k) savings invested, and consolidated, as their employment changes.
