Can you feel it? A slight change in the air. A crispness that you don’t remember being there last week. It’s true! Autumn is coming in two days and we’re ending the month with plenty-o-updates. So grab a milkshake (we take ours malted) and settle in:

• Research docket and wealth gap surprises with Morningstar’s Aron Szapiro

• State Auto IRA metrics – 36,000 new funded accounts in one month

• A closer look at … Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, and New York

• Can friction benefit retirement savers? Yes! Behavioral scientist Lindsay Juarez explains

• Hot Sauce! Fresh research and some brain expanders

• And, Pix of the week

Are there ways to help our families weather financial hardships? Yes, there are! Linking emergency savings and retirement savings is one of several ways to meet people’s emergency savings needs. Paulina Diaz share more about current experimentation and early success, including through the Nest Jars program in the UK.

We talk with Will Sandbrook about Universal Workplace Savings, Emergency Savings, NEST pensions UK - and why this matters in the US.