The 2012 Trustees Report shows a significant increase in the program's 75 year deficit from 2.22 percent to 2.67 percent of taxable payroll and an advance in the date of trust fund exhaustion from 2036 to 2033. These changes reflect the slow recovery from the recession and rising disability...

The release of the Federal Reserve’s 2010 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) is a great opportunity to assess how conflicting forces – the maturation of the system and the Pension Protection Act of 2006 on the one hand and the devastating effects of the 2008 financial collapse and Great...

A recent Issue in Brief projected that, under the most likely scenario, the aggregate funded ratio for state and local pension plans will increase from 73 percent in 2012 to 81 percent in 2016. The “optimistic” and “pessimistic” scenarios assume higher or lower, but also constant, rates...

The brief’s key findings are: Commentators question whether pension coverage is a serious problem, indicating that 80 percent have access to a plan. But this number refers to access – not participation – and to full-time workers in both the public and private sectors. A review of four...

The brief’s key findings are: *The National Retirement Risk Index framework is used to address how much working-age households need to save for retirement. *A typical household should get a third of its retirement income from a savings plan, with the low income needing one quarter and the high...

Accessing home equity will become increasingly important in a world where retirement needs are expanding – people are living longer and face rapidly rising health care costs – and the retirement system is contracting – Social Security replacement rates are declining and employer-provided...

The National Retirement Risk Index (NRRI) measures the share of working-age American households “at risk” of being unable to maintain their pre-retirement standard of living in retirement. The Index is calculated by comparing households’ projected replacement rates – retirement income as...

The release of the Federal Reserve’s 2010 Survey of Consumer Finances is a great opportunity to reassess Americans’ retirement preparedness as measured by the National Retirement Risk Index (NRRI). The NRRI shows the share of working households who are “at risk” of being unable to...

As a result of rollovers from 401(k) plans, Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) have become the biggest form of retirement savings – bigger than 401(k)s. This development raises concerns because, compared to 401(k) regulatory safeguards, IRA investments have fewer protections. One...

Since working longer is the key to a secure retirement for the vast majority of older Americans, it is useful to take a look at labor force trends for those under and over age 65 for the last century. This brief proceeds in three steps. The first section describes the long-run decline in labor...