Ninety-one percent of employees view their 401(k) plan as one of the most critical savings vehicles on their path to a secure retirement. This statistic, from a recent Bank of America Merrill Lynch survey, comes as no surprise to David George Ball, an early champion of 401(k) plans and former Assistant Secretary of Labor for pension and welfare benefits under President George H. W. Bush.
Ball has written a memoir, “A Marked Heart,” published by iUniverse, in which he outlines how, as a senior executive at AMAX Inc. in 1981, he helped launch one of the first 401(k) plans at a large company and how, as Assistant Secretary of Labor, he helped push through legislation that made the adoption of 401(k) plans easier for companies. In fact, Ball recently wrote to President Bush, calling 401(k) plans – the widespread acceptance of which was facilitated by a regulation implemented during his presidency – the most important domestic policy achievement of his administration.
