Bradley Belt

Bradley D. Belt, one of the nation’s leading experts on retirement security and its impact on financial markets and the economy, is senior managing director of the Milken Institute. He leads its capital markets initiatives and its Center for Financial Market Understanding. He is also the chairman and co-founder of Palisades Capital Management, which works on pension and longevity risk management strategies and issues dealing with pensions, insurance, and financial services. Formerly, Belt was the executive director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC).

Exclusively represented by Leading Authorities speakers bureau, Belt discusses broad trends in pension policy – and the associated opportunities and risks – and the fragility of retirement security structures, including the long-term deficit in Social Security, the erosion of defined-benefit plans, and the shifting of investment risks in defined-contribution plans. With gravity and good humor, he looks at demographics, financial markets, and the economy to help organizations assess risk and develop a strategy for managing the retirement plans they offer.

Pension Protector. As the chief executive officer of PBGC, Belt oversaw the government corporation that insures pension benefits, a $50 billion investment portfolio. Under his leadership, PBGC restructured its operations, adopted a new investment policy, implemented performance-based human capital management strategies, established new risk management systems, and oversaw the resolution of many of the agency’s largest and most complex financial settlements. He also played a leading role in the historic overhaul of pension rules, giving millions of Americans a better chance of getting the retirement benefits they earned.

A Fiduciary Frontiersman. Belt has long been at the center of policy on pensions and international finance. He has served in senior roles at the Securities Exchange Commission and the United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs and was senior vice president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Additionally, Belt was a presidential appointee to the Social Security Advisory Board and led the bipartisan National Commission on Retirement Policy. He also served as legislative director to Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and as counsel to SEC Commissioner Charles Cox.

Accolades and Writing. Belt was named by SmartMoney as one of its “Power 30” in finance and as one of the “10 Most Forward-Thinking Leaders in Workforce Management” by Workforce magazine.

He has also written extensively on these subjects. He is the author of Protecting Private Pensions and the Public Interest: Solutions for the Shortfalls in Employer-Sponsored Defined-Benefit Plans (April 2011), The 21st Century Retirement Security Plan: The National Commission on Retirement Policy Final Report (1999), Replacing the Income Tax: Framework for a New Tax System (November 1995), and Replacing the Income Tax: Principles for a New Tax System (May 1995).