On January 20, with a presentation by Fernando Larraín, director of the International Centre for Pension Management (ICPM), the webinar “The importance of saving in pensions: the case of the new Law in the US” was held with great success, organized by the International Federation of Pension Fund Administrators (FIAP) and which was presented by its president, Guillermo Arthur.

In the instance, Larraín presented the background that gave rise to the reform proposed by the Joe Biden government, which, among other things, seeks to take charge of the challenges of savings and coverage of the pension systems, together with the demographic changes that affect the population, in three main axes: promoting savings for retirement; incorporate incentives for new companies and small businesses to offer retirement plans, and provide greater flexibility for people nearing retirement age to increase their savings.

Fernando Larraín explained the challenges and lessons that this law provides for Latin America. Among the former, the regional idiosyncrasy plays an important role, calling for breaking with the resistance of workers and employers to changes in the pension model; and with respect to learning, the verification that individual savings is a key tool when talking about an improvement in pensions.

Finally, he stated that it is more efficient for improvements to pension systems to be gradual and pragmatic, achieved through broad consensus (as happened in the case of the US), instead of trying to make radical reforms in the “all or nothing” style and without consensus among the various actors involved, as has often happened in Latin America.

To review Fernando’s full talk at the webinar, you can download his presentation here.

You can also watch the webinar again on FIAP’s YouTube Channel, here.