According to EBRI estimates, the percentage of private-sector workers participating in an employment-based defined benefit plan decreased from 38 percent in 1979 to 15 percent in 2008. Although much of this decrease took place by 1997, there have been a number of recent developments that have...

In December 2010, the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform released their long-awaited document on federal debt reduction, “The Moment of Truth.” Although their guiding principles and values (pages 13-14) specifically mention the need to keep America sound over the long...

The analysis in this paper was designed to answer two questions: (1) What percentage of U.S. households became at risk of insufficient retirement income as a result of the financial market and real estate crisis in 2008 and 2009?; (2) Of those who are at risk, what additional savings do they...

The EBRI Retirement Readiness Rating™ was developed in 2003 using the EBRI Retirement Security Projection Model® (RSPM) to provide assessment of national retirement income prospects. The 2010 update uses the most recent data and considers retirement plan changes (e.g., automatic enrollment,...

Past analysis using EBRI’s proprietary Retirement Security Projection Model® (RSPM) has found that roughly 44 percent of Baby Boomer and Gen X households are projected to be at-risk of running short of money in retirement, assuming they retire at age 65 and retain any net housing equity in...

Most private-sector employers that automatically enroll their 401(k) participants do so at a default rate of 3 percent of pay, a level consistent with the starting rate set out in the Pension Protection Act of 2006, but a rate that many financial experts say is far too low to generate sufficient...

One of the major findings in each of the last five annual retirement income adequacy studies by EBRI was that the retirement income adequacy prospects for Gen Xers were approximately the same as for Baby Boomers. However, recent studies by other organizations suggest Gen Xers will fare much...

This paper provides new results showing how many years into retirement Baby Boomer and Gen Xer households are simulated to run short of money, by preretirement income quartile. It begins with a brief introduction of the various methods of quantifying retirement income adequacy, along with a...

This paper analyzes the potential of a generic auto-IRA proposal to increase the probability of a “successful” retirement and decrease retirement deficits. Results were provided for all age groups from ages 35-64, but the primary focus was on the youngest cohort (ages 35-39), as they would...