WBS: Significantly fewer workers say they experienced health care cost increases in 2015 compared with previous years, according to new research by EBRI. Press release.
IRAs: Owners of individual retirement accounts (IRAs) significantly increased their investment allocations to stock equities in 2013 compared with the two previous years, according to new analysis by EBRI. Press release.HSA Investment Options: Investment options in health savings accounts (HSAs) are a fairly new and not widely used option, but they tend to draw larger contributions and have higher balances where they do exist, according to a new analysis by EBRI. Press release.
Longevity Annuity Contracts: A recently authorized feature for 401(k) plans would allow workers to transform all or part of their retirement savings into a guaranteed stream of lifetime income, similar to what traditional pensions can provide. New modeling from EBRI finds this feature would be a significant help as a way to reduce their “longevity risk”—the risk of outliving their retirement savings—but only to those workers who can expect to have a long retirement. Press release.
IRAs: Relatively few owners of individual retirement accounts (IRAs) are withdrawing money from them, and most of those who do are those over age 70-½ who are required by law to take a distribution from their Traditional IRA, according to new research by EBRI. Press release.
Satisfaction Gap: Individuals with health insurance continue to express higher satisfaction with traditional health plans compared with so-called “consumer-driven” plans, but the “satisfaction gap” appears to be narrowing, according to new research from EBRI. Press release
Self-Insured: Will small businesses follow the lead of bigger firms and start self-insuring their medical benefits to avoid the costs of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)? So far (up to 2013, the latest data available), there is no evidence that they are doing so, according to new research by EBRI. Press release.
Auto-IRAs: If “automatic IRAs” (individual retirement accounts) were made universal, how significant could their impact be for increasing retirement readiness and reducing the national retirement savings deficit? That depends largely on age, the default contribution rate and the opt-out rate (the percentage of eligible employees who choose not to participate), according to new research by EBRI. Press release.
CDHPs: People of have so-called “consumer-driven” and high-deductible health plans tend to be older, more educated, and with higher incomes than those with traditional health plans, according to new research from EBRI. Press release.
Income Measures: A new analysis by EBRI shows that the new questions being used to measure income in the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey found a significant amount of income from IRAs and 401(k)-type plans was being missed across all levels of income for Americans age 65 or older. Press release.
End-of-Life Finances: New research by EBRI shows that a large percentage of individuals who died recently had little or no assets. Those who died relatively younger were even more likely to be in this situation. Press release.
Big Data: Since “big data” is changing so many aspects of the business world, how is it affecting the way health and retirement benefits are provided to private-sector workers? At a recent policy forum sponsored by EBRI, several national experts described how employers and researchers are making a major commitment to capturing and analyzing the vast amount of health and retirement data in their benefits plans. Press release.
