College Professor

A grey-haired lawyer recognizable by her large, round glasses, Borzi, 67, seems an unlikely antagonist of big banks and brokerages. She was a research professor at George Washington University’s public health school before being named in 2009 by President Barack Obama to the Labor post that oversees private-sector benefit plans. She earned a master’s in English from Syracuse University and her law degree from Catholic University in Washington.

While little-known outside of her field, Borzi’s impact on the U.S. health and retirement systems has been profound. Along with her pension responsibilities at Labor she has been a point person on implementing the Affordable Care Act, Obama’s health care law.

Many of Borzi’s accomplishments came while she served for 16 years as pension and employee-benefits counsel for a U.S. House subcommittee. She’s known as the “mother of COBRA” for her work on that law, which allows workers who lose their jobs to temporarily extend their health coverage. She also proudly cites her authorship of a law giving women more rights to their husbands’ pensions in the case of an early death or divorce.

Turning 65

How Americans save for their latter years has changed vastly since Labor first set rules for retirement funds in the 1970s. Many workers had employer-controlled pensions and the 401(k) didn’t exist. Now, pensions are rare and tens of millions of people rely on their 401(k) plans and IRAs, which together hold almost $11 trillion.

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