Edward Jones' Grassroots Legislative Task Force "Fly-In" to Washington, D.C.

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Oct 07, 2021, 12:18 ET

ST. LOUIS, Oct. 7, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- For the 36^th time, financial services firm Edward Jones' Grassroots Legislative Task Force met with US legislators on Oct. 5 and 6 from Washington, D.C., to discuss a number of investment-related issues on the minds of individual investors with lawmakers, particularly advancing bipartisan retirement savings legislation to help more Americans save for a secure and dignified retirement.

While usually meeting in the US Capitol, this year's "fly-in" was held virtually. The theme for this year's virtual meetings was "Living our Purpose."

The Grassroots Task Force, a group of financial advisors from all 50 states, remains the securities industry's only volunteer advocacy organization that travels to Washington, D.C. each year to speak out on issues of importance to the individual investor. The group is dedicated to being the voice of individual investors to local, state and national lawmakers.

"The Grassroots Task Force is a great example of living our purpose - which is to partner for positive impact to improve the lives of our clients and colleagues, and together, better our communities and society," said Jesse Hill, Edward Jones principal, Government and Regulatory Relations. "With branch offices in 422 of the 435 Congressional districts, we are uniquely positioned to advocate for issues that are important to individual investors and share how policies have 'real world' impacts."

According to research Edward Jones conducted with Age Wave and Harris Poll, at the end of 2020, 22 million Americans stopped making monthly retirement contributions. For the past two years, the Grassroots Task Force has been focused on advocating for bipartisan retirement savings by hosting virtual roundtable events across the country to build momentum for bills that will help millions of Americans save for a secure and dignified retirement.

The group's current priorities include:

Establishing a new catch-up contribution to help workers 60 and older who have not been able to save sufficiently for retirement.
Increasing the required minimum distribution age from 72 to 75 to help more workers who are working and living longer to save longer.
Enhancing the small business start-up tax credit, which will enable many small businesses across the country to provide retirement benefits to their employees.
Permitting employers to make matching contributions with respect to student loan repayments that will help workers burdened with large student loan debt to start saving for retirement.
Launching The Military Spouses Retirement Security Act, which helps address the unique challenges military spouses face in saving for retirement by providing a tax credit to small businesses to make military spouses eligible more quickly for retirement benefits.

"Our research on the devastating impact the pandemic has had on retirement savings really reinforces the need to create additional opportunities for people to save," said Hill. "We are passionate about improving the possibilities for individual investors and will ensure their concerns are heard on Capitol Hill—even in this virtual environment."

About Edward Jones
Edward Jones, a FORTUNE 500 firm headquartered in St. Louis, provides financial services in the U.S. and, through its affiliate, in Canada. Every aspect of the firm's business, from the investments its financial advisors offer to the location of its branch offices caters to individual investors. The firm's nearly 19,000 financial advisors serve more than 7 million clients with a total of $1.7 trillion in assets under care. The Edward Jones website is www.edwardjones.com, and its recruiting Web site is www.careers.edwardjones.com. Member SIPC.

SOURCE Edward Jones