J. Mark Iwry

Mark Iwry (pronounced “Eevry”) is a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and Visiting Scholar at The Wharton School. He was Senior Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury from 2009 to January 2017, serving concurrently as the Treasury Department’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Retirement and Health Policy. His portfolio included pension, retirement (including 401(k) plans and IRAs), savings, and health policy; related tax policy and tax and legal aspects; legislative and regulatory implementation of health care reform (ACA); other employee benefits and compensation, and related legislative, policymaking, and rulemaking/regulatory responsibilities.

In addition to his current roles at Brookings and Wharton, he is Senior Policy Advisor to AARP and serves on boards of advisors for, or otherwise advises, various other organizations, including academic and research centers, think tanks, fintech startups, industry associations, and other private-sector and nonprofit entities. Mark previously served as the Treasury Department’s Benefits Tax Counsel, a partner in the law firm of Covington & Burling, Of Counsel to the law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell, Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, Research Professor at Georgetown University, and a co-founder and Principal of the nonpartisan Retirement Security Project.

He has been invited to testify before Congress – representing Treasury and the Executive Branch or, while in the private sector, testifying as an independent expert – on more than two dozen occasions and has testified before various State legislatures. He has provided policy advice to numerous Senators, Members of Congress, and congressional staff (Democrats and Republicans) and to five Presidential campaigns. His books and articles include the co-edited volumes (with William Gale and Peter Orszag), Aging Gracefully: Ideas to Improve Retirement Security in America and Automatic: Changing the Way America Saves (with W. Gale, D. John, L. Walker).

In recent years he has been recognized as one of the world’s “30 top financial players” (Smart Money magazine), “Investment News 20” (20 individuals expected to have a major influence on the financial services industry), 100 most influential people in finance (Treasury and Risk), 50 most influential people in aging (Next Avenue), 40 most influential people in pensions (Institutional Investor), number 3 among the “100 most influential people in 401(k)” (401(k) Wire), etc.

A principal architect of the Saver’s Credit to expand 401(k) and IRA coverage of middle- and lower-income workers (claimed annually on some 8 million tax returns), the “myRA” (a simple, safe, affordable starter account for new savers), and the “SIMPLE” IRA plan (covering about 3 million workers), he co-authored President Obama’s legislative proposal to achieve a breakthrough in retirement savings coverage through automatic enrollment in IRAs, and played a central role in originating and designing the nationwide initiative to adopt, at the state level, the automatic IRA and other programs to facilitate private-sector retirement saving. He also formulated and directed Treasury’s strategy in the 1990s to expand saving by defining, approving and promoting 401(k) automatic enrollment (and automatic rollovers to curtail pension leakage). Between periods of government service, he was instrumental in promoting 401(k) automatic enrollment and developing the Pension Protection Act of 2006 autoenrollment provisions.

Mark has been centrally involved in developing or orchestrating other expansions and improvements of the nation’s pension, health care, and benefits systems, law, and regulatory framework: promoting lifetime income (including authorization of “QLAC” longevity annuities and target date fund annuities, and promotion of other partial and incremental annuities) in 401(k) and pension plans and in IRAs; developing the startup tax credit for small businesses adopting new retirement plans; expanding saving through direct deposit of income tax refunds into IRAs and US savings bonds, and promoting payroll deduction IRAs, as well as driving the rollback of the health FSA “use it or lose it" rule.

He has been the subject of profiles in the Wall Street Journal and other major media, has delivered more than 600 talks, keynote addresses, “fireside chats”, and other presentations at financial, business, trade association, academic, policy, advocacy, legal, and other professional conferences and meetings in the US and abroad, and has conducted numerous “town hall meetings” and press, congressional, and stakeholder briefings. Among his most recent awards are the American Payroll Association’s Government Partner Award, the Pension Rights Center award for outstanding contributions to retirement security, the Retirement Income Industry Association award for innovation in retirement income products, the Small Business Council of America special achievement award for “outstanding contributions, leadership, and dedication to promoting the interests of America’s private retirement plan and health care systems”, and the Insured Retirement Institute’s Champion of Retirement award (the only recipient who was not a Senator or Member of Congress). For his service at Treasury, he received a special award from the IRS as well as Treasury’s Exceptional Service Award.

He graduated with honors from Harvard College (A.B.) and Harvard Law School (J.D.) and has a Masters degree in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School. He has been listed in Best Lawyers in America, Washington DC Super Lawyers, Who’s Who, etc., is a Fellow of the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel, and a member of the bar of the United States Supreme Court. Mark’s observations on taxation are quoted more frequently than nearly any other individual in the anthology As Certain As Death: Quotations About Taxes (ed., J. Yablon, Tax Analysts 2015), together with (better) quotes from more eminent authorities including Adam Smith, Jefferson, Franklin, de Tocqueville, the Old Testament, and Dave Barry.