The 2015 Pension 40: Kathleen Kennedy Townsend

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< The 2015 Pension 40: The Long Climb

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Kathleen Kennedy Townsend
Chief Executive / Center for Retirement Initiatives / Georgetown University
Last year’s rank: 32

“I’m not afraid of ERISA,” says Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, chief executive of the Center for Retirement Initiatives (CRI) at Georgetown University. The 64-year-old Townsend, who also is a managing director of Washington-based investment and advisory firm Rock Creek Group, says her investment management experience gives her a more optimistic view of how ERISA can benefit retirement savings even in states that resist federal oversight. In her position at CRI and as chair of Maryland’s task force on retirement security, Townsend — former lieutenant governor of Maryland and Robert Kennedy’s eldest child — says, “I’ve been pushing a different viewpoint, which is that I think it’s important to have the consumer protections that ERISA offers.” Her hope: Over the next few years, more states will embrace those protections; if that doesn’t occur, a single statute might make the most sense. So far, more than 20 states have tried to write their own statutes, often — as in the case of Connecticut — using ERISA language, but Townsend points out the difficulty of regulating and implementing those efforts. The Maryland task force plans to introduce legislation that will allow employers to contribute to multiemployer plans, unlike the individual retirement account model that has taken hold in other states. “I think [multiple-employer plans] will grow as a more attractive option in coming years, because the Department of Labor will make it clear, I hope, that they are a viable option and people will understand that we want to encourage a greater contribution than 3 percent.”

The 2015 Pension 40