Obama Wants More State Laws to Make Retirement Saving Easier - nytimes

WASHINGTON — President Obama told a White House conference on aging on Monday that he would instruct the Labor Department to help states pass laws to make retirement saving easier, after his own proposals in Congress went nowhere.

Mr. Obama also praised rules proposed by the Labor Department in April that would require more investment advisers to put their clients’ financial interests ahead of their own, a shift that is intended to help cut down on fees that can reduce retirees’ nest eggs.
“The notion here is that we want to make sure responsibility is rewarded, not exploited,” Mr. Obama said.

A handful of states have passed laws that require certain employers to automatically open retirement plans for employees when they are hired instead of waiting for workers to decide to do so on their own, and about 20 more are considering such laws. Mr. Obama said he wanted to encourage more of these laws to be passed.

The president spoke during the sixth White House conference on aging, an event that takes place roughly once a decade. Mr. Obama noted that the conference was particularly well timed because it was being held almost 50 years after legislation was passed creating the Medicare and Medicaid programs, which provide health care to the elderly and the poor.

Mr. Obama noted that the audience included former Representative John Dingell, a Michigan Democrat who played an important role in the passage of the Medicare law. And he said the country’s changing demographics made issues of aging particularly relevant now.

“When we won World War II, everyone came home and had babies. I mean, not literally everyone, but a lot of people had babies,” Mr. Obama said, referring to the nation’s baby boom population. “And now each and every day, almost 10,000 of those babies turn 65 years old.”

Too many of those turning 65 did not save enough for retirement, he said.

“There are a lot of folks out here who work really, really hard, but at the end of the day just still don’t have enough of a nest egg,” Mr. Obama said. “In today’s economy, preparing for retirement has gotten tougher.” - Read More at NYT

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