[b]Ted Benna[/b] is widely regarded as the father of the 401(k), which was born 40 years ago with the passage of the Revenue Act of 1978. The former benefits consultant didn’t write the 869-word section of tax code that paved the way for the plan. Nor did he set out to reimagine how American’s saved for retirement. Yet through what he calls a political “fluke” and his own interest in helping a client, Benna played a role in doing just that. In the decades since, assets in 401(k) plans have swelled to more than $5 trillion—and the impact is probably double that if you count rollovers to individual retirement accounts. Now Benna lives on a small farm in rural Pennsylvania, where he and his wife moved 20 years ago to be closer to family and, in the process, “reduce our expenses by probably 50% by relocating from a big house in Philadelphia to a modest ranch-style home,” says Benna, who credits saving in a 401(k) that he established for his company in 1981 with funding his comfortable, if modest, retirement.