Issue Briefs

This Issue Brief examines the incidence of individual account plans among families, as well as the average amount of assets accumulated in these accounts, using the most recent data from the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF). EBRI Issue Brief May 4, 2006 32 pages

Hours of Work: An increasing share of the U.S. labor force is employed part-time, and this trend will likely lead to fewer workers with employment-based health benefits. Facts from EBRI: This article presents data from a variety of sources about private-sector health benefits, such as offer rates, take-up rates, and prevalent types of health plans. Press release EBRI Notes May 2, 2006 8 pages

Social Security: The article examines changes in the distribution of Old-Age and Survivors Insurance benefits (the primary Social Security program) under five reform options, and notes that any changes in Social Security could have a dramatic effect on the percentage of elderly living below the poverty level. Tax Expenditures and Employee Benefits: In his budget, the president is required to provide a list of “tax expenditures”—federal tax revenue foregone due to preferential provisions. This includes both tax-deferred programs (in which tax revenue ultimately will be collected) and tax-exempt programs (in which no revenue will ever be collected). Press release. EBRI Notes Apr 11, 2006 12 pages

This Issue Brief reports findings from the 16th annual Retirement Confidence Survey (RCS), which suggests that many American workers are not ready to undertake the task of financial planning for their own retirement and face the prospect of having to work far longer than they expect. EBRI Issue Brief Apr 4, 2006 28 pages

This new EBRI analysis quantifies how workers are likely to be affected by pension freezes, and how much they would have to save in a 401(k)—whether provided by their employer and/or saved by themselves—to offset the loss of accrued benefits from the pension freeze. EBRI Issue Brief Mar 8, 2006 20 pages

The Retirement Confidence Survey of College and University Faculty was conducted to better understand the retirement planning and saving behavior of college and university faculty, as well as to gauge perceptions regarding various aspects of their retirement preparations. Press release.  The analysis of retirement annuity and pension income for those over 50 notes that demographic factors remain key indicators, the gender gap closing, and annuity income streams disappearing.  EBRI Notes Mar 2, 2006 12 pages

This Issue Brief explores whether an old concept (benefit design) and a newer concept (evidence-based clinical information) can be more explicitly linked in order to better focus care on health improvement, and to discourage services and costs that do not result in improved health. EBRI Issue Brief Feb 16, 2006 16 pages

Four issues dominated the most recent Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) policy forum, which was devoted to the release of a ground-breaking nationwide survey of consumer-driven health plans and a discussion of the results. Press release. EBRI Notes Feb 2, 2006 12 pages

These two articles report current data on assets and trends in individual retirement accounts (IRAs) and Keoghs (for the self-employed), and on the sources of income of the elderly (age 65 and Over). IRA press release. EBRI Notes Jan 16, 2006 16 pages

A new EBRI study shows the value of preserving lump-sum distributions from 401(k) and assets from other retirement plans when you switch jobs: “A significantly higher percentage of those who spent their lump-sum distributions entirely reported their standard of living (in retirement) as being somewhat or much worse than was reported by those who rolled over their entire distribution (24.5 percent compared with 16.2 percent),” the study says. EBRI Issue Brief Jan 10, 2006 44 pages