Emergency Savings - Are we Re-Learning Lessons or Have we Reached its Limits?

Aspen Institute

While emergency savings offer a financial lifeline for households to cope with the unexpected, 28% of U.S. adults had no emergency savings going into the COVID-19 crisis.  The crisis has hit certain populations particularly hard: only about a third or fewer of Black and Hispanic adults, those younger than 30, and those with no college experience say they have a rainy day fund to cover three month’s worth of expenses.

To help families recover from crises — and to build long-term resilience for future ones – policymakers, employers, and financial services institutions need to implement tools that make emergency savings accessible and automatic. 

Join us as we discuss lessons from behavioral economics, applications in government and financial services, and the realities of financial decision-making at the household level.  What emergency savings tools to enable people across America to cope during this economic recovery – and create a stable, equitable savings system that can weather the next one?

Attendees will hear:

• How emergency funds help households cope with the financial challenges caused by the coronavirus, and what those without savings are doing to survive
• Insight into the barriers that face households in the U.S. in accumulating emergency savings
• Examples of how the financial services industry and employers give workers the tools they need to save
• An overview of the policy opportunities that can accelerate emergency savings for households as we emerge from the COVID-19 crisis

Speakers:

• David Derryck, Chief Impact Officer, SaverLife
• Wendy De La Rosa, Co-founder, Common Cents Lab
• David Newville, Vice President of Policy & Research, Prosperity Now
• Deborah Winshel, Managing Director, Global Head of Social Impact, BlackRock

More Information, How to Register