Martha Priddy Patterson

Martha Priddy Patterson died in 2020 at age 71. She had become a Fellow of the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel (the “College”) in 2003.

She was a 1971 graduate of Vanderbilt University and a 1974 graduate of the University of Texas School of Law. She moved to Washington, DC to serve on the legislative staff of U.S. Rep. Bob Eckhardt (D-TX). Later she was a partner in the law firm of O'Connor & Hannan, was tax policy director of Time Inc.'s Washington legal office, was director of employee benefits policy and analysis for KPMG, and then served for a decade in that same role for Deloitte Consulting until her retirement in 2009.

She worked in Washington for her entire career. She was highly influential in employee benefits. In 1983, she co-founded The Tax Coalition, a women's organization of Congressional staffers, lawyers, lobbyists, and consultants. A prolific and well-known author and speaker, she was often interviewed in the national press on retirement issues, especially in spotlighting retirement savings disparities for women.

An especially influential work was her book on financial planning for working women, "The New Working Woman's Guide to Retirement Planning: Saving and Investing Now for a Secure Future" (University of Pennsylvania Press 1999). In the book she described many reasons that women’s retirement savings have been generally lower compared to men’s, e.g., when workers take time off to care for children, they incur a loss of seniority and even after returning to work, they have missed the opportunity for promotions that would have brought higher retirement benefits. She also noted in the book that women disproportionately work in fields in which employers are less likely to sponsor retirement plans.

In the book's first edition (1993), she wrote that "only 9 percent of women over 40 receive or expect to receive a retirement benefit." By the time the 1999 edition was written, the percentage had increased, but only to 21 percent. She provided testimony on the issue at Congressional hearings.

She also was the author of "The 401(k) Handbook" (West Publishing, 1991 and following) and co-authored, with Phyllis C. Borzi, a chapter in a book, "Recalibrating Retirement Spending and Saving" (Oxford University Press 2008). The chapter ("Regulating Markets for Retirement Payouts: Solvency, Supervision, and Credibility") assessed the laws and regulations that govern investment advisers who manage lump sum distributions to retirees (which generally are rolled over into IRAs, often with the adviser’s recommendation). The analysis by Patterson and Borzi later would inform the impactful fiduciary regulations issued during Borzi’s tenure as Assistant Secretary of Labor for the Employee Benefits Security Administration.

Patterson was not only very much appreciated by her peers who knew her in the College, but by those in other organizations as well. After her death, a tribute to Patterson was included in the official program for the 25th anniversary awards of the Women's Institute for a Secure Retirement, which described her many achievements and said "Martha's great sense of humor is sorely missed."

Photo Source: Family photo printed in The Washington Post, April 23, 2020 https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/martha-priddy-patterson-who-wrote-about-retirement-planning-for-women-dies-at-71/2020/04/23/d3ab91f2-858f-11ea-a3eb-e9fc93160703_story.html