UCLA behavioral economist Schlomo Benartzi admits that the push for more impressive retirement plan participation rates is not an easy one – especially considering the fact that humans are involved, and humans don't like making complex decisions if they don't have to.

Benartzi, keynote speaker at this year's Center for Due Diligence conference in Chicago, said those awful forces of inertia and fears of loss (not so misplaced, considering recent market history) work to paralyze so many potential participants that they're left frozen in their tracks. And as a result, America's workplace savings plans continue to suffer.

But Benartzi, who co-chairs the Behavioral Decision Making Group at UCLA's Anderson School of Management, as well as working as head behavioral economist for Allianz Global's Investors Center for Behavioral Finance, said that redefining and re-inspiring America's retirement savings strategies is a critical job, but not an impossible task.