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The Department of Labor launched its Retirement Savings Education Campaign
(RSEC) in July 1995 to help women, minorities and small businesses take steps
to save for a secure retirement.
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In 1997, the Savings Are Vital to Everyone’s Retirement
Act, known as
the SAVER Act, was enacted, directing the Department of Labor to continue
its retirement savings education and outreach program. In addition, the
SAVER Act directed the Department to convene three National Summits on
Retirement Savings to be co-hosted by the White House and Congress. The
first summit, focusing on the challenges to saving for retirement, was
held on June 4-5, 1998. The second summit, focusing on advancing generational prosperity, was held on February 27 – March 1, 2002. The
third summit is directed under the Act to be convened in 2005. For more
information on the Summits, including the materials from the Summits,
visit the National
Summit on Retirement Savings Web site.
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To mark the fifth anniversary of the Retirement Savings Education
Campaign, the Department unveiled a new campaign logo and slogan, Saving
Matters, designed to more effectively reach its audiences and help change
their attitudes and behavior towards saving.
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The Department also instituted the Oseola McCarty Super Saver Award to
recognize low-income wage earners who have successfully prepared for the
cost of retirement through saving and investing. DOL hopes to inspire
others by shining a spotlight on these individuals.
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The Department has utilized many tools to encourage employees and small
businesses to save including publications, public service announcements,
outreach, and the agency’s Web site.
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After years of experience with the campaign, the Department assessed its
efforts and the changing needs of employees and small businesses as well
as the community of those providing financial education. This review has
helped the Department focus its efforts to reach employees who have access
to a retirement savings plan through their employment and encouraging them
to participate in the plan to the maximum level permitted.
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The campaign has a number of
materials to help employees understand the importance of saving now for a
secure retirement and providing steps to help them start. These include
the brochure, Top Ten Ways to Save For
Retirement, also available en español. The Department worked with the Certified Financial Planner Board
of Standards to create an educational financial planning tool, Savings
Fitness: A Guide to Your Money and Your Financial Future, to
provide an easy-to-follow method for setting goals and including
retirement on the list of personal priorities as part of an overall
financial plan.
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The department has helpful tips for women contained in
the brochure Women and Retirement
Savings, also available en español,
providing women with a checklist of questions and answers to
be considered concerning their retirement savings. For women facing
divorce and for practitioners who advise them, the publication QDROS:
The Division of Pensions Through Qualified Domestic Relations Orders
was designed to help.
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The campaign’s educational materials include
information about employees’ rights under their job-based retirement
plan and an explanation of how those plans work in the following
publications:
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Here are some helpful tools employees can use to
calculate how much money an individual will need at retirement:
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Kiplinger
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This calculator will help you come up with a ballpark estimate of how
much you need to save for retirement. It assumes that you are saving in
tax-deferred accounts, that inflation will average 3% annually and that,
prior to retirement, conservative investors will earn 7% annually, while
aggressive investors will make 10%. During retirement, conservative
investors are assumed to earn 5% and aggressive investors, 7%. To
simplify the calculations, the calculator assumes you'll be eligible for
social security and pension income when you retire and thus reduces the
total assets you'll need. (If you plan to retire early, you’ll have to
supplement social security income with savings or another job.) The
calculator also assumes that you'll need your retirement nest egg to
last 25 years.
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CNN
Money - This retirement planner helps you estimate how well your savings
program is preparing you for retirement. First it helps you figure
out how much you'll need. Then it tells you your chances of getting
there.
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US
News -
What will your financial picture be like during retirement? The U.S.
News Retirement Calculator will help you find out and plan for the
future.
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American
Savings Education Council -
The Ballpark Estimate is an easy-to-use, one-page worksheet that
helps you quickly identify approximately how much you need to save
to fund a comfortable retirement. The Ballpark Estimate takes
complicated issues like projected Social Security benefits and
earnings assumptions on savings, and turns them into language and
mathematics that are easy to understand.
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National
Association of Securities Dealers - These financial calculators are meant to provide you with some
of the information necessary to make sound financial decisions and
to plan for the future.
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These and other publications are available free of charge by
calling toll free, 1.866.444.EBSA (3272).
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The campaign is expanding its outreach nationwide to provide
assistance in person. The Department continues to expand the retirement
savings information available on its Web site and the many partners the
campaign works with to reach a wider audience of employees and employers.
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The Department of Labor has worked to educate small business owners
about the various simple retirement plan options available and the
advantages of starting a savings vehicle for themselves and their employees.
Through partnerships with the Small Business Administration, Internal
Revenue Service, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Women
Business Owners, and more, the Department has developed and distributed
educational materials about SEP/IRAs, SIMPLE plans, 401(k) plans, and other
savings vehicles.
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The campaign has a number of
materials to assist small business owners understand the various
retirement savings vehicles available and to encourage them to start such
a plan for themselves and their employees including Choosing a Retirement
Solution for Your Small Business, developed with the Small Business
Administration, U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Internal Revenue Service.
The Department also has publications to provide important information on
plans and considerations in selecting a service provider to assist in
setting up the plan including Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees
of Small Businesses, Simplified Employee Pensions: What Small Businesses
Need to Know, and A Look at 401(k) Fees for
Employers.
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These and other publications are available free of charge by
calling toll free, 1.866.444.EBSA (3272).
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The Department also has two interactive Web sites to allow businesses to
review various savings vehicle options and the key features of each. Based
on the responses to key questions, such as the number of workers employed
by the company and whether or not the company will contribute to the
workers’ retirement savings, the savings vehicle options are provided to
the business owners. The sites, the Small Business Advisor , one of the
Department’s e-laws programs, and Select a Retirement Plan, a site
developed with the Small Business Administration and the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce, provide a thorough description of each type of plan.
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For more information about the Retirement Savings
Education Campaign, please contact:
U.S. Department of Labor
Employee Benefits Security Administration
200 Constitution Avenue, NW, Suite N-5656
Washington, D.C. 20210
Tel 202.693.8664
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Public Service Announcements
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En Español
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