By Chris Farrell

America’s retirement savings system is a mess (that’s a technical economic term). “System” is actually too grand a word for the ad hoc retirement savings plan edifice that has been built up over years.

To be sure, the system works reasonably well for those on the payroll of an employer with a retirement benefit plan and a relatively stable job. Employees at larger companies typically have 401(k)s with automatic enrollment, automatic contribution increases and a target-date default option that provides a well-diversified portfolio for those unable or uninterested in managing their portfolio.

But for most people, the system is too opaque, too difficult to navigate and too often failing too many workers in providing economic security in their retirement years.

“I think the most important takeaway is that the American retirement system is too complex and confusing,” David John, deputy director of the Retirement Security Project at the Brookings Institution think tank, told me in a recent interview. “It needs to be simpler for people to operate and to understand.”

What the ‘Wealth After Work’ authors say
Amen to that.

John, who’s also a senior strategic policy adviser at the AARP Public Policy Institute, is one of three editors of “Wealth After Work,” an intriguing new Brookings book on improving the nation’s retirement savings system. They’re not quite ready to blow up the current retirement savings system, but have some smart ideas on what could make it much more equitable and helpful.

Read more @Market Watch