Issue Briefs

401(k) savers continued to seek diversified portfolios in 2011, with 61 percent of 401(k) participants’ assets invested in equity securities and 34 percent in fixed-income securities, on average, according to the annual update of a joint study released today by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) and the Investment Company Institute (ICI). EBRI Issue Brief Dec 20, 2012 56 pages

As the economy slowly recovered from the recent recession, American workers’ participation in employment-based retirement plans stabilized, according to a new report by EBRI. EBRI Issue Brief Nov 27, 2012 44 pages

A growing number of workers are realizing they will not get retiree health care from their employer after they stop working, according to a new report by EBRI. While earlier research found little impact from reductions in coverage on current retirees, EBRI finds that initial changes employers made to retiree health benefits affected future retirees as opposed to then-current retirees. Over time, more and more retirees have “aged into” those program changes, resulting in the greater impact found in more recent studies. EBRI Issue Brief Oct 23, 2012 24 pages

Although fewer American families are participating in a retirement plan at work, more of those with a plan are in a 401(k). At the same time, ownership of individual retirement accounts (IRAs) is falling, according to a new report by EBRI. EBRI Issue Brief Sep 26, 2012 28 pages

Workers routinely rank their employment-based health coverage as the most important benefit they receive, followed by a retirement plan—but the tax preferences that support them are drawing increased scrutiny. Drawing from presentations at EBRI’s 70th biannual policy forum, this Issue Brief examines the implications, costs, and consequences of changes to federal tax preferences for private-sector employment-based benefits. EBRI Issue Brief Aug 28, 2012 24 pages

As more American senior citizens are entering nursing homes they face the likelihood that their household wealth will be quickly depleted, according to new research by EBRI. EBRI Issue Brief Jun 12, 2012 20 pages

The average IRA balance is about a third higher and the median (mid-point) balance is almost 42 percent larger when multiple individual retirement accounts (IRAs) owned by an individual are taken into account, according to a new report by EBRI. EBRI Issue Brief May 30, 2012 20 pages

Americans’ confidence in their ability to afford a comfortable retirement is stagnant at historically low levels in the face of more immediate financial concerns about job uncertainty and debt, according to the 22nd annual Retirement Confidence Survey (RCS), the longest-running annual survey of its kind in the nation. EBRI Issue Brief Mar 13, 2012 36 pages

After a decade marked by two severe bear markets, 401(k) plan participants have adopted a more balanced approach to their portfolios, according to a report released today by the Investment Company Institute (ICI) and the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI). Fears that younger participants in 401(k) plans would abandon stock investing are not borne out by the data, which suggest that greater use of target-date funds is helping workers keep their investing on track. EBRI Issue Brief Dec 21, 2011 52 pages

Two recent proposals to change the existing tax treatment of 401(k) retirement plans, if enacted, are likely to result in lower account balances for many 401(k) participants, according to a new analysis by EBRI. EBRI Issue Brief Nov 9, 2011 24 pages