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‘Clock ticking’ on retirement crisis, says CEO at trillion-dollar TIAA
Nearly half of Americans are not saving enough for retirement and TIAA Retirement Solutions CEO Kourney Gibson say we have no time to waste, herself included.
“45% of Americans aren’t saving enough for retirement so every single day that we’re sitting there presenting on something, or sitting in a room, looking at each other without an outcome on the agenda, that’s time wasted from actually executing,” Gibson told CNBC’s Julia Boorstin in the latest episode of the “CNBC Changemakers and Power Players” podcast.
That means slicing through layers of bureaucracy at the 107 year-old firm, founded with a mission to create retirement security for Americans, and empowering her team to move quickly and expand access to investment and savings products. “Because the time clock is ticking, right?” Gibson says.
The traditional goal of retiring between the ages of 65 and 70 is considered unattainable by two-thirds of Americans today, and many expect to work as long as their bodies will allow it, according to a recent TIAA survey.
“Times are hard right now for many, many people,” says Gibson. Millennials and Gen Z workers tell her they just want to know they have “something” for later in life. “That helps to create that security, and that can help alleviate all kinds of burdens on people,” she adds.
But the shortfall in retirement savings cuts across generations, income brackets, race, gender and political party lines, according to Gibson. People are living longer, the share of Americans with access to traditional employer-funded pension plans has plummeted, and Social Security was never meant to be the only source of income for retirees.
“Part of what we’re doing at TIAA – whether it’s through us or through just expanding the category – we’re talking about what guaranteed lifetime income looks like as a part of all pension plans,” she says. “When I got the opportunity to join TIAA and Thasunda Brown Duckett said ‘Hey, we got to make sure that this company is here for the next 100 years,’ I was like, ‘Sign me up!” Gibson recalls.
Gibson and Brown Duckett have been named to the CNBC Changemakers list in successive years.
Gibson says she is energized by the challenge of helping more young Americans establish retirement savings plans that will support them into old age, creating diversified portfolios and encouraging consistent contributions, particularly if an employer offers a company match. “Do not leave that money on the table,” she said. “Scratch, claw, whatever,” Gibson says about making sure that if an employer is offering a match, workers find a way to allocate money from their paychecks to take advantage of it.
She believes good ideas can come from anywhere, and leaders need to engage employees at all levels of the company. Unafraid to step outside of a traditional corporate structure, she often taps young employees for feedback, a practice that Gibson says helps her maintain an innovative mindset.
“There will be days I’ll pop out of my office and I’ll just grab someone and say, ‘Hey, are you on a call? Are you in the middle of something? I have a call with the CFO. Do you want to just come in and listen?’ … I’ll spend the time afterwards to say, what did they hear? What did they take away? Is there something I missed?”
Gibson joined TIAA following a 20-year career at financial services firm Loop Capital, where she worked under the tutelage of her cousin Jim Reynolds, the company’s founder, who built the biggest Black-owned investment bank in the world. This entrepreneurial background has helped Gibson be open to new ways of doing things, and she encourages employees among TIAA’s 15,000 associates to seek out better and more efficient practices.
“Is there something that you can pivot to do it better, to do it faster, to do it more smartly, to scale it better? Is there something you can take out of the way that helps you accelerate much more quickly? That’s how you move around the bureaucracy and don’t just accept what is because it was what was,” Gibson says.
It’s this approach that drives her mission of creating better retirement outcomes for more Americans. “It becomes all of our problem, and it’s a problem we can solve when you get the right minds together, you put aside your differences, and you say, ‘let’s go tackle this.’”
Follow and listen to this and every episode of the “CNBC Changemakers and Power Players” podcast on Apple and Spotify.
CNBC is accepting nominations for the third CNBC Changemakers: Women Transforming Business list. The unranked list will recognize a distinguished group of women whose accomplishments have left a mark on the business world and who are paving a path forward.
