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401(k) Plan Asset Allocation, Account Balances, and Loan Activity in 2004

This report updates research on 401(k) plan participant activity through year-end 2004, using the EBRI/ICI 401(k) database -- the largest database of its kind and an ongoing collaborative effort between the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) and the Investment Company Institute (ICI). Among its key findings: Consistent participation in 401(k) plans remains essential to successful saving; equity investing remains popular in 401(k) plans; investment preferences are shifting to simpler options; loans are widely available, but rarely taken. EBRI Issue Brief Sep 28, 2005 20 pages

"Retirement Income Security: A Look at Social Security, Employment-Based Retirement Plans, and Health Savings Accounts"

A variety of factors, including rising health care costs, increasingly suggest that individuals who are trying to plan for a secure retirement face a gathering storm, speakers told about 100 participants at the Employee Benefit Research Institute’s spring policy forum. EBRI researchers and nearly a dozen other experts examined the different forces at work that threaten Americans’ economic security in retirement as they discussed three topics: Social Security overhaul, 401(k) enrollment and accumulations, and health savings accounts. Press release
EBRI Notes Aug 9, 2005 12 pages

Employment-Based Health Benefits: Trends in Access and Coverage

This Issue Brief examines the state of employment-based health benefits among workers with respect to offer rates, coverage rates, and take-up rates. It also examines how the state of employment-based health benefits has changed since the mid-1990s, reasons why workers do not have employment-based health benefits from their own employer, and how these reasons have changed since the 1990s. EBRI Issue Brief Aug 8, 2005 28 pages

The Influence of Automatic Enrollment, Catch-Up, and IRA Contributions on 401(k) Accumulations at Retirement

Automatically enrolling new workers appears to be a significant factor in increasing account balances in 401(k) plans, with lower-income individuals benefiting the most, according to a new model developed by EBRI and the Investment Company Institute (ICI). The finding is important because employment-based 401(k) plans have become the dominant retirement savings option for millions of American workers, and the amount of retirement income many Americans will have when they reach 65 will depend to a large degree on how long they participate in a 401(k) plan, how much they contribute to the plan, and how they invest their 401(k) assets. EBRI Issue Brief Jul 13, 2005 28 pages

Social Security Reform: The Importance of Disability Insurance and Annuities in Individual Accounts

Although most of the debate over Social Security has focused on retirement benefits, the program also pays disability and survivor benefits as well. According to this EBRI study, retirement benefits would have to be cut substantially or taxes increased if federal policymakers agreed to protect disability payments as part of any overhaul of Social Security,if disability benefits are to be preserved at the level provided in current law—as many policymakers say they should. Press release.

EBRI Notes Jul 13, 2005 20 pages