People both inside and outside the retirement industry are realizing that expecting Americans to save for retirement in the midst of pandemic-caused furloughs, layoffs and an ongoing recession is, in many cases, absurd. Congress itself, in the CARES Act, basically acknowledged that, minus emergency savings, retirement plans may be the only source at present for financially strapped workers to tap to avoid financial disaster.

In an effort to gauge what effects the pandemic has had on retirement saving, and to get a sense of how this might change the retirement industry,  we consulted experienced financial professional Chad Parks, who is the founder and CEO of Ubiquity Retirement + Savings. Parks started his career as a financial advisor and has more than 24 years of industry experience. His financial technology company holds the claim of having pioneered transparent, flat-fee retirement plans for the historically under-served small business market, and it estimates it has helped over 9,000 businesses over 20 years contribute over $2.25 billion toward retirement savings.