Given the fact that nearly half of households headed by someone age 55 or older have no retirement savings and that one estimate puts the median retirement account balance across all savers at $40,000, the Aspen Institute Financial Security Program convened its third annual Leadership Forum on Retirement Savings.

More than 70 experts and industry leaders explored feasible solutions over the course of two days. By Forum’s end, participants had identified five ideas most ready for advancement.

The first idea is to expand the state-sponsored, mandated retirement plans. “This solution is a combination of both market and policy solutions,” Karen Biddle Andres, director of policy and market solutions and retirement work at the Aspen Institute, tells PLANSPONSOR. “From the policy side, it is the states that are leading the way and passing legislation. We are eagerly watching the development of these plans as well as the possibility of federally mandated retirement plans. There is a lot of interest in a federal plan, and there are bills on the Senate floor that would provide for this.

“On the industry side,” Biddle Andres continues, “there is a role for recordkeepers and payroll companies to get these small employers enrolled in a retirement plan, so it is a combination of both the private and the public enterprise to scale these programs.”

The second idea is to expand savings options for short-term emergencies. “Many American families are one bill away from serious money troubles, and the absence of any financial cushion makes long-term saving more difficult,” the Aspen Institute Financial Security Program says in its report summarizing the Forum, titled “The Time Is Now: Next Steps Toward a More Secure Retirement for All Americans.” “Pairing a short-term savings plan with a workplace retirement plan is currently showing promise in marketplace testing, but more regulatory guidance is called for.”

Biddle Andres says: “A lot of emergency savings products already exist in the banking sector, and there are a handful of recordkeepers, like Prudential, that are experimenting with solutions, but there is a lack of regulatory clarity. The current banking law doesn’t explicity allow employers to automatically enroll participants in an emergency savings program that combines short-term and long-term savings. The U.K. is piloting such a program, but here in the U.S., we are waiting on regulatory clarity.”

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