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National Institute on Retirement Security Comment Letter to DOL on Lifetime Income Illustration in Pension Benefit Statements (PDF)

"NIRS believes that it is important for the Department to make sure that the safe harbor assumptions produce likely outcomes that would be realistic estimates for all employees. For those individuals who would like to see benefit projections based on more aggressive assumptions, those can be completed with often just a few clicks on a website."

Observations on the NIRS Private Retirement System Analysis: Data 'Minding' is In Order

"Last week the National Institute on Retirement Security released a report ... that claimed that the median retirement account balance among all working individuals is ... $0.00. Moreover, that same report claims that '57 percent (more than 100 million) of working age individuals do not own any retirement account assets in an employer-sponsored 401(k)-type plan, individual account or pension.' ... [M]uch of the data -- and key elements, such as wealth, income, participation and retirement savings -- that underlie the conclusions is 'self-reported' which ... even the report's authors acknowledge '...can be problematic...'.... [C]aution in applying the conclusions seems well-advised."

National Institute on Retirement Security Testimony at Hearing Titled: 'The Power of Pensions: Building a Strong Middle Class and Strong Economy' (PDF)

The hearing witness shares research regarding defined benefit pensions, focusing on pension trends, how pensions fuel the American economy, how pensions ensure Americans can be self-reliant in retirement, and the economic efficiencies of pensions.

National Institute on Retirement Security Blames DB Decline on Funding Volatility Concerns

A new research brief by a Washington, D.C. trade group blames 'an onerous regulatory environment' for the trend away from defined benefit and toward defined contribution plans. [The link to the report on the target page may not be working.]

Testimony of the Insured Retirement Institute at DOL Hearing on Proposed Retirement Security Rule (PDF)

"The proposed rule is completely contrary to the President's inclusive economic principles and will harm the very consumers he and the DOL have said they wish to help. This rule will deepen the nation's retirement crisis by limiting access to sound financial advice."

Retirement Security 2015: A Roadmap for Policy Makers (PDF)

36 pages. "An overwhelming majority of Americans believe there is a retirement crisis.... Three in four Americans remain highly anxious about their retirement outlook, but the concern has dissipated slightly as the economy has recovered.... Even though Americans feel slightly less stressed about their retirement prospects, support for steady and reliable retirement income from a pension is high and growing.... Americans see retirement benefits as a job feature that is almost as important as salary.... Americans express strong support for pensions for public employees. Few Americans realize that 75 percent of public pension costs are paid for with employee contributions and investment returns.... Protecting Social Security benefits is increasingly important."

Pensions and Retirement Security 2013: A Roadmap for Policy Makers (PDF)

"Americans remain highly anxious about their retirement outlook despite stabilization of the financial markets, declining unemployment and increased consumer confidence.... Americans are highly supportive of pensions and see these plans as a way to improve retirement readiness ... Americans feel that leaders in Washington do not understand their struggles to save for retirement. Americans overwhelmingly would support Congressional action to provide all Americans with access to a new type of privately run pension plan. More than 90 percent would favor a new pension plan that is available to all Americans, is portable from job to job, and provides a monthly check throughout retirement for those who contribute."

Federal Employees' Retirement System and the Thrift Savings Plan: A Combined Approach to Retirement Security (PDF)

"One of the most well-known transformations of a pension system occurred when President Ronald Reagan signed the Federal Employees' Retirement System Act into law on June 6, 1986. This law moved federal employees from the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS), to a retirement system that integrated Social Security, a DB pension, and a DC savings plan. This issue brief reviews this new system, known as the Federal Employees' Retirement System (FERS). More specifically, this issue brief explores its impact on the funding of benefits and the adequacy of retirement income benefits for federal employees over the last twenty-five years."

Financial Asset Inequality and Its Implications for Retirement Security (PDF)

14 pages. "This issue brief ... finds that financial asset inequality has increased over time.... [U]sing 2016 data, this issue brief finds a similarly skewed ownership of financial assets among the Millennial and Generation X cohorts.... [T]hese households face an increasing retirement savings burden due to the decline of pensions in the private sector and longer life expectancy. The persistent concentration of financial assets among the wealthy, combined with anemic retirement savings among most households, poses a significant economic threat to the retirement security of many working Americans."

Lessons for Private Sector Retirement Security from Australia, Canada, and the Netherlands (PDF)

"This paper ... [outlines] social security and universal, quasi-universal, and voluntary employer-provided retirement plans in Australia, Canada, and the Netherlands.... [W]hile the level of risk borne by employees varies across the three countries' retirement income systems, risks are pooled among workers or offset by employers and government to a greater extent than in the U.S."

Preserving Retirement Income Security for Public Sector Employees (PDF)

42 pages. "[M]ost public retirement systems provide new members with a DB pension benefit or a DB benefit in combination with a DC account. Only a very small number of systems provide only a DC benefit.... 71 percent of the plans surveyed credit their members with interest on their contributions if they leave and request a refund.... [A]ll public DB plans allow for the purchase of service credits for prior military service, and more than half of the plans surveyed allow for the purchase of credits for prior out-of-state government service.... A number of plans have features that increase benefits for short or moderate term employees."

More Bombast from Andrew Biggs on Public Pension Plans

"[Economist Andrew] Biggs takes on the National Institute on Retirement Security (NIRS) and the pension administrators who belong to it. He labels as 'nonsense' the NIRS 'Pensionomics' research that shows how each dollar of pension benefits produces $2.37 in economic output, creating millions of new jobs and billions in additional labor income. According to Biggs, the NIRS research is 'faulty' ... NIRS executive director, Diane Oakley, argues that 'What doesn't make sense is the nation's broken retirement infrastructure.' ... [To] the extent that opponents of DB plans [for teachers in public schools] are reaching out for new reasons to support their 'conversion' arguments could suggest that perhaps some of their older ones are not gaining much traction? One can only hope."

Americans' Views of Social Security (PDF)

20 pages. "87 percent of Americans agree that Social Security should remain a priority for the nation no matter the state of budget deficits.... Among those who are not retired, most provided accurate responses about when they can start claiming Social Security income and the full retirement age.... When it comes to expanding Social Security, slightly more than half of Americans (52 percent) agree with this concept. Some 47 percent disagree with raising the retirement age, which is a benefit cut.... Eighty-seven percent say Congress should act now rather than waiting another ten years to find a solution."

Urban Institute Testimony to House Budget Committee on Promoting Middle-Class Retirement Security: The Importance of Accounting for Inequality in Resources, Burdens, and Risk (PDF)

29 pages. "Social Security is the bedrock of the US income security system.... For many, employer-sponsored retirement plans and Social Security complement one another, but access to such plans is not yet universal, and government subsidies to these plans now mostly go to those who need them least.... Medicare is a vital support for older Americans.... Americans face a significant, unpredictable risk of needing long-term services and supports. For many, this is the largest financial risk in retirement.... Decades of income stagnation and high levels of inequality in health risks have compounded many of these challenges."

Misinformation: The Assertion by NIRS That DB Plans Are Twice as Efficient as DC Plans

"The authors claim that with the longer time horizon, the riskier assets in DB lead to higher returns, which lead to higher income per dollar contributed, which is their definition of greater efficiency. But it's not that simple.... The NIRS study, and general practice within the public DB universe, assumes away the very real cost of DB guarantees. The result is a massive understating of DB plan cost."

Secure Retirement Institute Predicts Increase in Money Moving from DC Plans to IRAs

"Every year, defined contribution plan participants roll over more than $500 billion into IRAs after they retire or change jobs. [SRI®] predicts this to exceed $760 billion within the next five years. SRI research estimates that IRA rollovers represented approximately $565 billion in 2019, and jumped to $623 billion in 2020 ... Driven largely by the accrual of balances in workplace savings plans, rollovers rank among the largest financial transactions Americans will make."

First Tuesday Discussion at the Urban Institute: Working Longer to Make Retirement More Secure (PDF)

"ROBERT REISCHAUER: (In progress) -- Welcome to First Tuesdays at the Urban Institute. Today's topic involves all of those issues that surround the age at which people leave the workforce and retire. There are a lot of forces at work here. There are societal incentives that come in the form of tax policy and Social Security and Medicare policy and the way we structure pensions that effect those decisions. There are personal conditions and circumstances that might involve one's health[.]"

SPARK Institute Testimony on Retirement Security to ERISA Advisory Council, September 15, 2009 (PDF)

6 pages. Excerpt: [The] SPARK Institute recommends the creation of a new simplified and standardized employer-sponsored 401(k) savings plan for small employers. This new arrangement would deal directly with the roadblocks small employers have identified as the reasons for not voluntarily adopting a 401(k) plan.

Retirement in America: An Analysis of Retirement Preparedness Among Working-Age Americans

"Social Security constitutes half of income for the typical older adult. Income from retirement plans ... represents about a fifth of income on average.... The typical employee contribution rate to a defined contribution savings plan is between five and six percent and the typical employer contribution rate is just under three percent.... Retirement savings represent about a quarter of financial assets on average for the typical working adult, while home equity represents about a third."

Brookings Institution Testimony Submitted to Hearing on Tax Reform Options: Promoting Retirement Security (PDF)

"My testimony discusses a proposal that would reform public policies toward retirement saving by replacing the current deduction for contributions to retirement saving accounts with a flat-rate refundable credit that would be deposited directly into the saver's account."