Maryland is launching a commission to consider ways to expand workplace access to private-sector retirement savings, political leaders in Annapolis announced Tuesday.
Legislative and private-sector representatives serving on the commission will build on work done in 2014 by a governor's task force on retirement security, which found that more than 1 million state residents lacked access to retirement savings at work, and recommended that state officials create a payroll deduction retirement program.
The newly formed Commission on Maryland Retirement Security and Savings will be co-chaired by Maryland state Sen. Douglas Peters and state Delegate William Frick. Other commission members include Nancy Kopp, state treasurer; Sarah Gill, AARP senior legislative representative; Joshua Gotbaum, Brookings Institution scholar; Gary Kleinschmidt, Legg Mason retirement sales director; and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, who chaired the governor's task force and is a former lieutenant governor and founder of the Center for Retirement Initiatives at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University.
Maryland House Speaker Michael Busch, who launched the effort with Senate President Thomas Miller Jr., said in a statement that the risk of retirees outliving their savings and relying more on government programs “is becoming all too familiar.“ The commission will issue a report in December.
“AARP is delighted that Speaker Busch and President Miller are pulling together a group of thought leaders from across Maryland and around the country to address solutions to financial insecurity in retirement,” Ms. Gill said in an e-mail. “Knowing that workers are 15 times more likely to save if they have access to payroll deduction, we anticipate that ensuring access to a way to save for retirement at work will be a top priority of the group.”
