Aron Szapiro: 'You Can't Fix What You Can't Measure'

<p>Is there a retirement crisis in the United States, and what role does the government have in improving the system? What's the current status of a fiduciary standard for financial advice? </p> <p>Aron Szapiro, Morningstar's director of policy research and our guest for <em>The Long View</em> podcast, obsesses over these topics. In his role, he and his team conduct research on various matters of public policy and formulate views on policy proposals under consideration by Congress and regulatory bodies. Szapiro has testified before Congress, and he has an inside view of how Washington works: Before venturing into the private sector, he was a senior analyst in the U.S. Government Accountability Office, and he also worked for the New Jersey state legislature. </p> <p>In this wide-ranging interview, Szapiro defines Morningstar's approach to policy research and homes in on some of the policy matters dominating our discourse today: whether financial advisors should be held to a fiduciary standard, how the U.S. retirement system might be improved, and whether meaningful retirement legislation can make it through partisan gridlock in Washington. </p> <p>This conversation was recorded on April 30, 2019. Since then, the House passed <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/1994" target="_blank">the SECURE Act</a> (on May 23); that legislation has provisions related to annuities in 401(k) plans, multiple employer plans, and required minimum distributions. As of June 11, 2019, the provisions have not passed the Senate. And the Securities and Exchange Commission approved a final version of <a href="https://www.sec.gov/rules/final/2019/34-86031.pdf" target="_blank">Regulation Best Interest</a>, which aims to hold broker/dealers to a higher standard of care than was previously required.</p> <p><strong>Show Notes and References</strong></p> <p><strong>Background and Professional Development</strong><br /> Szapiro's trajectory into policy research: "It was this arcane language that I wanted to understand.