As the lone federal official to make it to the third day of ASPPA's hurricane-struck national conference just south of Washington D.C., Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation director Josh Gotbaum earned plenty of applause.

But Gotbaum received more positive feelings for his assertion that those in the retirement industry really are doing important work – sometimes, in spite of a raft of government regulations and roadblocks that make both DB and DC plans a challenging prospect.

"Retirement security is kind of like the weather – everybody talks about it, but nobody does anything about it," he said.