This paper examines workers' decisions to take a lump-sum distribution - a one-time payment - from an employment-based retirement plan when changing jobs, while remaining in the labor force. It builds on earlier, top-line data from the 2004 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). This...

This paper examines the level of - and trends in - IRA assets. In addition, it includes the most recent Internal Revenue Service (IRS) data on the distribution of assets and contributions to IRAs by IRA type, thereby permitting analysis of the assets and contribution levels of traditional...

Individual account retirement plans, such as 401(k) plans and individual retirement accounts (IRAs), have continued to increase their share of retirement assets (currently totaling about $7.5 trillion in assets), and this share is projected to grow further, particularly for private-sector...

The present Social Security program has been shown to be financially unsustainable in the future without modification to the current program. The purpose of this paper, the Employee Benefit Research Institute's fourth in a series on Social Security reform, is threefold: to illustrate new...

Over the past two decades, 401(k) plans have grown to be the most widespread private-sector employer-sponsored retirement plan in the United States, and now serve as the most popular defined contribution (DC) plan, representing the largest number of participants and assets. In 2006, 50 million...

This paper examines recent U.S. Census Bureau data on labor-force participation among Americans age 55 and older. The first section uses annualized data on labor-force participation from the Current Population Survey (available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Web site). However, these data...

This paper presents findings from the 2007 Minority Retirement Confidence Survey (MRCS), a survey that gauges the views and attitudes of working-age African-Americans and Hispanics, their preparations for retirement, their confidence with regard to various aspects of retirement, and related...

This paper presents key findings from the 17th annual Retirement Confidence Survey (RCS), a survey that gauges the views and attitudes of working-age and retired Americans regarding retirement, their preparations for retirement, their confidence with regard to various aspects of retirement, and...

This paper updates previous EBRI research on asset allocation in defined contribution plans and individual retirement accounts (IRAs) using the latest data from the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), a triennial interview survey of U.S. families sponsored by the Federal Reserve Board in...

Although there has been extensive analysis of the accumulation of retirement assets in the United States, limited research has been done on how quickly Americans use their assets in retirement. This paper examines the cohort that has for the most part reached the normal retirement age (65) for...