Events and News
CFERS has published a new report exploring the Implications of the Saver’s Match on Retirement Savings. Access to the May 8th webinar recording is now available to learn more about how to participate in the CFERS research. Click the links below to read the compelling reports and the impact on plan sponsors.
Read the Inaugural Report
Read the Saver’s Match Report
Anne Ackerley, Head of BlackRock’s Retirement Group moderates a live panel at the recent BlackRock Retirement Savings Summit, speaking to three leaders who are actively working to bridge the gender and race gap with regard to retirement savings - and how they are working to do it.
“Action begins with what we know — and critically, what we don’t know — about what’s causing these retirement savings differences. Of course, a key driver of differing savings outcomes is the well-documented racial and gender income gap.”
Access the May 8th Webinar Recording
In the News
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Plan Sponsor Perspectives Webinar
On May 8, 2024, CFERS held a webinar geared towards plan sponsors to hear actively engaged plan sponsors’ perspective on the benefits of the project and ways to get involved.
Attendees also heard from industry experts including Robin Diamonte (RTX) and Michael Kreps (Groom Law Group) on the implications of the findings.
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How Effective Might the Saver’s Match be in Mitigating Race/Gender Disparities in 401(k) Plans
Based on analysis done with a set of behavioral assumptions, the Saver’s Match will have the potential to increase the retirement savings of a significant portion of the population and help mitigate disparities in 401(k) savings for different groups based on race and gender.
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Initial Findings Webinar
On March 27, 2024, the CFERS initiative hosted a discussion with Jack VanDerhei, Morningstar Investment Management, Yemi Rose, OfColor, Robin Diamonte, RTX, and moderator Pamela Hess, DCIIA Retirement Research Center as they examined and discussed the initial findings and what it can tell us about the race and gender disparities that challenge the retirement industry today.
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Inaugural Report Summary
Same Income, Same 401(k), Different Account Balance: The Critical Role of Retirement Plan Design in Addressing Racial and Gender Retirement Savings Gaps
This summary provides an overview of our larger paper, How Large Are Racial and Gender Disparities in 401(k) Account Balances and What is Causing Them. Our data-driven analysis reveals potential solutions to make 401(k)s more inclusive.
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Inaugural Report: How Large are Racial and Gender Disparities in 401(k) Account Balances and What is Causing Them
In this inaugural report, CFERS presents their findings, focusing on identifying existing race and gender disparities in retirement account balances and their causes.
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Is Income the No. 1 Driver of Retirement Outcomes?
September 2023 – PlanSponsor provides the newest updates on the joint CFERS initiative that aims to leverage retirement plan data to foster inclusive wealth creation.
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Workplace Insights: Plan data analysis can help identify levers for positive change
In the June 2023 Issue of their Workplace Insights newsletter, Bank of America provides deeper insight into the CFERS mission of marrying employee data with recordkeeping data to get a better picture of employee behaviors and needs.
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Views: Closing racial and gender wealth gaps starts with 401(k)s
After home equity, retirement savings represent the second largest source of household wealth for Americans. But benefit advisers and other industry observers know that Defined Contribution plans are just not creating financial security or wealth for everyone.
Our Past Events
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Sharing Initial Findings at DCIIA's 2024 Innovation Forum
On February 28th, the Aspen Institute’s Karen Andres and DIIA’s Pam Hess were joined by CFERS research participants Beth Patillo (Leidos) and Alejandro Roman (S&P Global) to discuss findings from the inaugural report, “How Large are Racial and Gender Disparities in 401(k) Account Balances and What is Causing Them.”
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Connecting the Data: Building Toward Racially Equitable Savings Outcomes Discussion
On September 19th, industry leaders assembled in Washington, DC to discuss the next steps for forging future equitable outcomes in retirement plans. With over 40 firms attending, this roundtable discussion charted the path for ways to become engaged, the critical need for equitable outcomes, and the benefits of understanding the differences in demographic groups for employers.
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Dinner Discussion in New York City
Over 30 stakeholders gathered in New York City on November 14th to discuss the future of equitable retirement savings. The dinner featured an intimate panel discussion focused on the opportunity to influence real and actionable change for closing disparity gaps in retirement savings.
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Panel at DCIIA's Innovation Forum
On March 8th, DCIIA’s 2023 Innovation Forum expanded on topics of retirement inclusion and mitigating wealth disparities with a variety of panels and industry speakers. Karen Biddle Andres from The Aspen Institute Financial Security Program was featured in a forward-thinking discussion where she led a call to action for this project.
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Panel at DCIIA's Retirement Research Center Summit
On March 9th at the 2023 RRC Summit, Jack VanDerhei from Morningstar’s Center for Retirement and Policy Studies shared an exclusive preliminary look at some of the data and findings from the project’s synthetic universe.
