Aspen is a place for leaders to lift their sights above the possessions which possess them. To confront their own nature as human beings, to regain control over their own humanity by becoming more self-aware, more self-correcting, and hence more self-fulfilling.
Director, Benefits Transformation Initiative and Senior Policy Advisor
Emergency savings were a particularly important lifeline for families during the economic crisis of COVID-19, with 73% of Americans reporting a reduction in their income during 2020. A recent survey conducted by the Aspen Financial Security Program, Morningstar, DCIIA, and NORC at the University of Chicago found that families who had emergency savings before the pandemic were much better able to maintain their financial health than those who did not. However, significant gaps in emergency savings by race and income were revealed, with a recent survey finding that 36% of Black and 28% of Hispanic workers reported having no emergency savings, compared to 24% of white households. Employers are starting to recognize the value of offering payroll deduction emergency savings tools to workers, and several different models are emerging. Today, these models face a variety of regulatory barriers to automatic enrollment, which limits the potential for automatic workplace emergency savings to reach scale. Fortunately, there are a variety of policy options available to policymakers to reduce or eliminate those barriers.In this brief we seek to illuminate policymakers’ opportunities to help make emergency savings both automatic and inclusive. The brief:
Explores the design features critical to a successful emergency savings tool;
Provides an overview of workplace emergency savings innovation in practice;
Summarizes the policy barriers preventing employers and providers from making workplace emergency savings automatic; and
Offers a set of policy options that can make automatic emergency savings available to everyone.
States working with the Aspen Institute Financial Security Program put forward a shared set of “North Stars” that define good public benefits delivery. Amid challenges to our benefits system, these North Stars are more important than ever.
Benefits screeners are a popular tool for increasing benefits access. This report offers a framework for benefits leaders to understand the role screeners play and assess their effectiveness.
Young adults today are coming of age in a volatile economic and political environment. We spoke with 12 young people about how they are navigating the transition to adulthood and what it means for public trust more broadly.
Young adults are grappling with sweeping changes to the U.S. benefits system under OBBBA. This paper illustrates these impacts and offers recommendations that can help young adults.
Leveraging a first-of-its-kind database, the Workers’ Wealth Lab uses retirement plan data to identify the tools and design features that can improve our retirement savings system. Read the report from the 2025 Lab.
Aspen FSP partnered with Canary, a provider of employee emergency relief funds, to explore how workers used this workplace offering when faced with financial emergencies, as well as how it impacted their financial security and experiences at work.
Aspen FSP partnered with SecureSave, a provider of workplace emergency savings accounts (ESAs), to survey 274 SecureSave users about their financial well-being and catalyze a conversation around ESAs.
Mike Wilkening’s work as a public servant has followed a simple philosophy: government in service of its people. In this blog, he shares more about his leadership approach and his position as an Aspen FSP Fellow.
Most households experience at least one financial shock in a given year, but there are few comprehensive solutions to help them. How can we solve this persistent challenge?
