Friends – Spring is finally here with all the hope and promise of renewal that this season always brings. Is all about warmer temperatures, spring cleaning, skinny cocktails, flowers, Easter eggs and new beginnings.

While we both think about that, here’s what’s on deck in the world of retirement savings innovation:

• The inimitable Mark Iwry parses SECURE 2.0 - and takes a future focus

• Numbers from the states

• Key updates from Maine, Massachusetts, and Puerto Rico

• Hot Sauce and Cool Stuff

• … and Pix of the week!

This week we have the pleasure of chatting with Mark Iwry. Mark’s bio runs long and deep. He served as Senior Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury from 2009 to January 2017, and served concurrently as the Treasury Department’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Retirement and Health Policy. His portfolio included pensions/retirement (DB and DC/401(k) plans, IRAs, etc.) and national savings policy; related tax policy and other tax and legal aspects; legislative and regulatory implementation of the Affordable Care Act, and other health policy; other employee benefits and compensation, and related legislative, policymaking, and rulemaking/regulatory responsibilities.

After the other E-word (ESG), Emergency Savings is one of the year’s hottest topics. We wanted to know: how much of that is talk, and how much of it is action? We cornered our friend Sid Pailla, CEO of new firm Sunny Day Fund, to shed some light for us.