Beware the Freelancer Retirement Fund Crisis

An estimated 40 percent of the U.S. workforce will be freelancers by 2020 and nearly 70 percent of so-called 1099 workers have no long-term savings.

It is estimated that 40% of the U.S. workforce will be freelancers by the year 2020 and recent reports have shown that nearly 70 percent of current so-called 1099 workers have no long-term savings at all. Those numbers should have alarm bells sounding, said Nathan Fisher, managing director of 401(k) solutions at Fisher Investments. 'It's a tremendous problem' said Fisher. 'In America we are not helping workers get on track and stay on track for a comfortable retirement. And the gig economy is going to make it worse. People don't know how or where to save.' Additionally, Fisher said many of these freelancers are millennials who, contrary to popular belief, really do care about saving for retirement, but are facing some significant barriers to entry like student loan debt. This raises new challenges both for workers and their employers. 'The gig economy is great millennials who want more options, but it makes retirement savings harder,' said Fisher.