Each year between 2024 and 2027, over 4.1 million Americans will turn 65.
That’s 11,200 per day, on average. Many lack sufficient assets for later life, and the Social Security system faces unprecedented financial strain—posing major challenges to today’s younger generations. Will it be there for them? What might benefits look like? And what does the recent election mean for Social Security’s future? As retirement security grows increasingly elusive for millions of Americans, what is needed to meet this moment?
December 3, 2024
4:30–5:45 PM
Brown Lounge
Brown Hall
Washington University
On December 3, Jason Fichtner—former Chief Economist of the Social Security Administration and now Chief Economist at the Bipartisan Policy Center—discussed retirement security policy, sharing innovative ideas to ensure Social Security’s viability through a reinvigorated system for financial security in later life.
Two noted respondents shared the stage with Fichtner: Elizabeth Pippert Larson, the Associate Director of Research and Administration at the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy at Washington University, and Nancy Morrow-Howell, the Betty Bofinger Brown Distinguished Professor of Social Policy in the Brown School, Co-Director of the Harvey A. Friedman Center for Aging, and Faculty Director with the Center for Social Development. Ray Boshara, Senior Policy Advisor with the Center for Social Development, will moderate the event.
This event was sponsored by a coalition of partners at Washington University in St. Louis: The Center for Social Development; the Dean’s Office at the Brown School; the Clark-Fox Policy Institute; the Harvey A. Friedman Center for Aging; the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy; the Department of Political Science; and the Department of Sociology.
Stream the Event
This event was one in a series celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Center for Social Development and the centennial of the Brown School at Washington University.
Featured Speaker
Jason J. Fichtner
Chief Economist, Bipartisan Policy Center
Executive Director, Retirement Income Institute, Alliance for Lifetime Income
Jason Fichtner, PhD, is Chief Economist at the Bipartisan Policy Center. He is also the Executive Director of the Retirement Income Institute, Alliance for Lifetime Income. Fichtner is on the Board of Directors for the FINRA Investor Education Foundation and the National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI), and a Member of the Puerto Rico Pension Reserve Trust, where he serves on both the Pension Benefits Council and the Pension Reserve Board. Fichtner is also affiliated with Stanford University as a Policy Fellow with the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy (SIEPR) and a Research Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Financial Security (CFS).
Fichtner also served as a senior economist with the Joint Economic Committee of the US Congress, and has work has been featured in the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Investor’s Business Daily, the Los Angeles Times, the Atlantic, and USA Today, as well as on broadcasts by C-SPAN, PBS, NBC, NPR, and SiriusXM.
Respondents
Elizabeth Pippert Larson
Associate Director of Research and Administration, Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy, Washington University
Elizabeth Pippert Larson is the Associate Director of the Weidenbaum Center at Washington University, where she manages research programs, writes and monitors the budgets of the Center, and works with corporate sponsors. In addition to assisting faculty with external and internal grant support, as well as staff supervision, Larson also organizes public events and event planning, fundraising, and donor support. An attorney, she is a member of the Missouri and Washington, D.C. Bar associations. She also currently serves on the Community Advisory Board of St. Louis Public Radio, an NPR member station. Originally hailing from Chicago and Washington, D.C., she and her husband live with their children in the Fox Park neighborhood of the City of St. Louis.
Nancy Morrow-Howell
Betty Bofinger Brown Distinguished Professor of Social Policy, Brown School, Washington University
Co-Director, Harvey A. Friedman Center for Aging
Faculty Director with the Center for Social Development
Nancy Morrow-Howell is an international leader in gerontology, known for her work on productive engagement of older adults. Her research contributes to knowledge about programs, policies and organizational arrangements that maximize the productive engagement of older adults while promoting positive outcomes for the individuals themselves. Her research documents outcomes for individual, families, and communities associated with work, volunteering, and caregiving by older adults. Her interests include the development of the Next Move initiative, now a part of WashU for Life, where older adults are facilitated in transitions to new roles in employment, volunteering or education.
At the Brown School, Morrow-Howell teaches gerontology courses. She also teaches a freshman course on aging, aimed at increasing young people’s understanding about long life and the need for social transformation. As co-director of the university’s Harvey A. Friedman Center for Aging, she promotes gerontological research and education across disciplines and schools.
She has received Washington University Distinguished Faculty Award and the Brown School’s Outstanding Faculty Award. In 2008 and 2011, she was given the Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award by Washington University. She was the recipient of the 2011 Career Achievement Award from the Association for Gerontology Education in Social Work and of the 2013 Distinguished Career Achievement Award from the Society for Social Work and Research.
Moderator
Ray Boshara
Senior Policy Advisor, Center for Social Development
From November 2022 until June 2024, Ray was a Legislative Fellow in the Office of U.S. Senator Bob Casey, where he focused on Senator Casey’s 401Kids proposal. Prior to this, he served over 11 years at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, where he was the Founding Director of a research center focused on wealth inequality. Before moving to St. Louis in 2009, Ray was Vice President of New America, a DC-based think tank. Prior to New America, he worked in the U.S. Congress, Prosperity Now, the United Nations in Rome, and Ernst & Whinney (now EY). Ray also serves on many local and national boards.
In the fall of 2021, Ray published The Future of Building Wealth in partnership with the Aspen Institute and previously published The Next Progressive Era with Phillip Longman. He has written for the Washington Post, New York Times, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and Atlantic Monthly, and has appeared on CBS Sunday Morning, NPR, Bloomberg, and CNN, among others. He has advised presidential candidates and every Administration since George W. Bush’s and has testified before the U.S. House and Senate several times.
Raised in Akron, Ohio, Ray is a first-gen graduate of The Ohio State University. He also holds master’s degrees from Yale Divinity School and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
Sponsors
CENTER FOR SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
Brown School, Washington University in St. Louis
csd.wustl.edu
BROWN SCHOOL DEAN’S OFFICE
Brown School, Washington University in St. Louis
brownschool.washu.edu
CLARK-FOX POLICY INSTITUTE AT WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
https://clarkfoxpolicyinstitute.wustl.edu/
HARVEY A. FRIEDMAN CENTER FOR AGING AT WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
https://publichealth.wustl.edu/centers/aging/
WEIDENBAUM CENTER ON THE ECONOMY, GOVERNMENT, AND PUBLIC POLICY AT WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
https://wc.wustl.edu/
DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE AT WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
https://polisci.wustl.edu
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY AT WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
https://sociology.wustl.edu/