This Town Meeting in Cleveland will be to highlight a pilot project called Cleveland Saves, which is sponsored by the Consumer Federation of America to raise financial literacy in that city. The NPFE will soon be launching a public service announcement campaign. The first round of announcements will be distributed to more than 1,000 TV stations across the country. And I am pleased to announce that today we are launching the NPFE web site that will serve as a gateway for financial planning and saving resources for individuals, employers, and communities. Second, we are improving existing savings incentives by making it easier to take advantage of them.
Studies show that individuals are much more likely to save when saving is made simple and easy.
Under a more novel approach known as automatic enrollment , an employee is presumed to participate unless the employee explicitly opts out. Third, Treasury and IRS yesterday issued another ruling clarifying that employers may automatically roll over a departing employee's balance to an IRA set up for that employee, unless the employee explicitly directs otherwise. This ruling is designed to reduce the leakage from retirement plans that would inevitably be associated with a highly mobile workforce. So that there can be no mistaking our positions on these critical issues, Secretary Herman and I are releasing a joint statement today making clear that automatic enrollment in retirement saving plans and automatic rollover of accumulated balances are fully consistent with the policy of both our Departments. We urge all employers to carefully consider adopting automatic enrollment.