This is the first part of a history of the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), which the EBRI board has asked Dallas Salisbury to fully document between now and his move from EBRI President (after 37 years in that position) to EBRI President Emeritus in 2016. In early 1977, three representatives of consulting firms got together to discuss newly created responsibilities stemming from enactment of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), their effects on consulting firms, and the need for objective, reliable, nonpartisan analysis. An April 1978 planning document highlighted a number of reasons for starting the Employee Benefit Research Institute: increasing public awareness of employee benefits; growing adverse publicity about employer-sponsored programs; a lack of understanding of the benefits system among the public, the press, and the government; a need for better information about employee benefits and better distribution of this information. On September 18, 1978, the Institute was incorporated. The EBRI Bylaws set forth six purposes: to promote, improve, and further the common interests of persons involved in the employee benefit field through activities, including the encouragement and conduct of research relating to employee benefit plans, whether governmental, private, or otherwise, including the tens of millions of participants in these programs who rely upon them for economic security; to promote employee benefit plans as an important means of strengthening the system of free enterprise; to promote goodwill and harmony among employers and employees through the development and advancement of employee benefit plans; to bring together for their common interests persons who are interested in employee benefit plans; to assemble and disseminate information on employee benefits, by publication or otherwise, to the general public, including interested organizations, both private and governmental; and to sponsor lectures, debates, round tables, forums, and study groups on employee benefit plans. EBRI opened its doors on December 4, 1978. The Institute's early work supported the 1978 President's Commission on Pension Policy, which generated visibility for both retirement issues and EBRI and led to an expansion of EBRI's membership and horizons
