Preparing Marines and Sailors for the Uniformed Services Blended Retirement System: An Increasing Importance to the Personal Financial Management Program

On November 15, 2015, the National Defense Authorization Act that President Obama signed into law established a new blended military retirement system. This new system would incorporate a contribution matching system into service members Thrift Savings Plan investments to account for a 20 percent reduction in their defined benefit retirement pension, taking effect for all members entering service after January 1, 2018. The civilian sector has already all but abandoned the pension system in favor of a defined contribution system through employee 401(k)s. Analysis of the lessons learned by the civilian sector in this transition indicates that the Marine Corps is not ready to ensure its own transition is seamless. Infrastructure to make improvements is already in place through the Personal Financial Management Program, which has recently become an inspectable program through Marine Corps Order 1700.37. While this program has been around for over a decade, it has never garnered an adequate amount of attention from military leadership. This study seeks to identify civilian sector 401(k) best practices, retirement concentrated improvements that can be made to the Personal Financial Management Program, and the role of Marine leadership in facilitating the transition to a blended retirement system.