Five years ago, when Congress and the financial industry decided IRAs and 401(k) plans should be treated the same, Republicans and Democrats joined hand-in-hand with regulators and the industry, as well as Wall Street and Main Street.

This love-in birthed the 2006 Pension Protection Act. Among the concerns lawmakers wished to address was the sense too many workers were "underinvesting" in their retirement plans.

Underinvesting means one of two things. It can mean workers are simply not investing, or it can mean workers are investing too conservatively. The DOL's own fact sheet admitted "one-third of eligible workers do not participate in their employer-sponsored defined contribution plans (such as 401(k) plans)."

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Christopher Carosa

Chris Carosa has been writing a weekly article and monthly column for BenefitsPRO online and BenefitsPRO Magazine since 2011 and is a nationally recognized award-winning writer, researcher and speaker. He’s written seven books, including From Cradle to Retire: The Child IRA; Hey! What’s My Number? – How to Increase the Odds You Will Retire in Comfort; A Pizza The Action: Everything I Ever Learned About Business I Learned By Working in a Pizza Stand at the Erie County Fair; and the widely acclaimed 401(k) Fiduciary Solutions. Carosa is also Chief Contributing Editor of the authoritative trade journal FiduciaryNews.com and publisher of the Mendon-Honeoye Falls-Lima Sentinel, a weekly community newspaper he founded in 1989. Currently serving as President of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and with more than 1,000 articles published in various publications, he appears regularly in the national media. A “parallel” entrepreneur, he actively runs a handful of businesses, including a small boutique investment adviser, providing hands-on experience for his writing. A trained astrophysicist, he also holds an MBA and has been designated a Certified Trust and Financial Advisor. Share your thoughts and story ideas with him through Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/christophercarosa/)and Twitter (https://twitter.com/ChrisCarosa).