Opening Plenary

The national CDA conference is off to a great start this morning. Andrea Levere, CFED's President, welcomed everyone with the big vision of the conference: Imagine a world where each and every child has a savings account at birth, where communities and families are making cash investments in a child's future assets before that child even speaks her first word.

Andrea passed the podium to Michael Sherraden, Center for Social Development, whom she described as a true godfather of the matched savings field. He reminded us why we believe in asset-building in general, how it empowers families to get ahead and builds their aspirations. He also said we should frame asset-building as a universal "development" strategy more than an anti-poverty strategy, which is partly what makes universal child savings accounts such a powerful concept. He noted that there are exciting conversations underway with members of the Obama administration about child savings accounts, and it's the aspirational impact that seems to grab their attention the most. And we can't ignore the lessons of behavioral economics -- that default enrollment is perhaps more important to participation than the matching incentives. Also, we shouldn't get bogged down in the competing virtues of government "plans" vs. market products: the differences are exaggerated.

The other plenary speaker of the morning was Luis Ubinas, President of the Ford Foundation, who noted that he could brag about the Foundation's amazing work in this field because as the relatively new leader of the Foundation he wasn't around to be personally responsible for any of it. But he made some very eloquent remarks on behalf of the work. He echoed comments that Jonathan Mintz made last night at the opening reception: we have an unprecedented opportunity in this country now. We've been through a special moment. It's clear that something has to change and Americans are asking themselves, what kind of society do we want to create, and how can our country be a fairer place for all its citizens. Children's savings accounts can be central to that re-orienting.

Luis shared a great anecdote about how a child's participation in financial education and savings can inspire her parent(s) to move down that path, as well, and investigate individual development accounts and other tools. I've seen that happen in arts education, but hadn't thought much about the parallel with financial education and matched savings.

He also made the interesting point that we shouldn't too strongly emphasize the existing potential of re-directing resources from Earned Income Tax Credit refunds, because poor families truly depend on those funds. We should emphasize the opportunity to provide an incremental savings tool through child development accounts.

And my favorite moment was when he was asked by a banker what we can say and do to make other financial institution professionals feel more urgency about this matched savings work when they're being buffeted by CRA reform and other regulatory changes. He replied that if he were running a financial institution today (which could easily have been the case, given his background), he would feel intense urgency about rebuilding the tarnished brands of banks and investment companies by focusing on universal savings products, using available subsidies from the public sector. If we can steer financial professionals toward that awareness of how to re-position their companies' brands for a new economic reality, then we'll be laying the groudwork for terrific accomplishments in the coming years.