Retirement Income Security White Paper -- James and Ghilarducci

From:teresa.ghilarducci@gmail.com To: johnpodesta@gmail.com, rweingarten@aft.org, James@blackstone.com Date: 2016-02-16 01:16 Subject: Retirement Income Security White Paper -- James and Ghilarducci

Dear Randi and John, Thank you for your patience. When we talked about the the retirement security summit idea on January 4 we only had Tony James and my NY Times oped about our proposed Guaranteed Retirement Account (GRA) and I promised you a detailed version. (I have cc'ed Tony here). Happily, Tony and I finalized this draft (attached) of a White Paper presenting the GRA and we would very much like your comments. We have circulated it to a small group -- Jeff Zients, Gene Sperling, Alan Krueger, Austan Goolsbee, Alicia Munnell, and Larry Summers -- who kindly reviewed the paper and it is much better for their input. A number of federal policy makers have talked to us about sponsoring legislation. I think their interest is driven by the scope of the retirement crisis -- widespread and general inadequate preparations for retirement, and the alarming inequality in retirement time and income security. State and local governments are moving forward with plans as a second best option to a federal Social Security supplement, and linking these new initiatives to a federal effort holds great promise. I hope we will move forward with our summit. I am in an active media tour for my new retirement planning booklet and the positive response is well beyond what my publisher and I expected. I'm talking a lot with people about the book and about their problems facing retirement. Those conversations underscore for me that there is a widespread, somber and serious concern about retirement. People want solutions that don't abandon them to brokers and high fees and exposure to volatile financial markets which they fear will cheat them of retirement. They want, and deserve, a safe retirement option that builds on and works in tandem with Social Security. Tony and I believe the GRA can provide that. Our summit can let people know there is someone on their side so they don't feel abandoned as they try to plan for a dignified retirement. Sincerely, Teresa Know where your money is and who has control? I have published a new helpful book on how to plan for retirement (and generally manage your money). It is also a bit funny, short, and cheap - $12.95. Order here. http://workman.com/features/retire/ Professor Teresa Ghilarducci | Bernard L. and Irene Schwartz Professor of Economics Director, Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA) New School for Social Research, 6 East 16th Street NY, NY 10010 Access my papers on SSRN at: http://ssrn.com/author=80965 and follow me on twitter @tghilarducci