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Retirement Savings Shortfalls: Evidence from EBRI's Retirement Security Projection Model (PDF)

Retirement Income Adequacy for Boomers and Gen Xers: Evidence from the 2012 EBRI Retirement Security Projection Model (PDF)

EBRI Retirement Security Projection Model: Analyzing Policy and Design Proposals (PDF)

17 pages. "[This Issue Brief examines] the impact of various retirement-reform proposals on all US households between the ages of 35 and 64 by first assessing the current, aggregate national-retirement deficit, and then examining the impact of the following potential initiatives: [1] Auto Individual Retirement Account (IRA) programs ... [2] Programs expanding access to defined contribution plans ... [3] A universal defined-contribution scenario. [4] Auto-portability proposals. [5] Proposed reductions in the 402(g) and/or 415(c) limits."

Will You Have Enough to Retire on?: The Retirement Security 'Crisis'

Excerpt: Controlling for household composition, the Social Security replacement rate for typical workers born in 1940 was 63 percent of average preretirement earnings, and the median total pension replacement rate was 92 percent of prior earnings - well over financial planners' recommended rate of around 75 percent. Even among the younger 1960 birth cohort, for whom the projected median Social Security replacement rate declines to 54 percent, the median total pension replacement rate remains at 82 percent. While policymakers should work to strengthen Social Security and private pension savings, talk of a crisis in retirement income preparedness appears premature.

Research Project: The Social Security Early Retirement Benefit as Safety Net (PDF)

Excerpt: This project will use the Health and Retirement Study to examine the health and economic status of those who collect Social Security early retirement benefits and will predict their behavioral reaction to an increase in the Early Entitlement Age or a change in the Full Retirement Age that reduces the value of the early retirement benefit. We would use a propensity score reweighting method to estimate who uses early retirement benefits as a safety net against deteriorating health and who might be induced to apply for disability benefits or retire without income replacement if the generosity or availability of early retirement benefits were reduced. [UM10-02]

Discussion Paper: The Retirement Project: Why Do Boomers Plan to Work So Long? (PDF)

37 pages. "The recent uptick in average retirement ages appears to be the leading edge of a new long-term trend. Lengthier careers will likely promote economic growth, increase government revenue, and improve individual financial security at older ages."

CBO's Social Security Projections No Cause for Alarm

"CBO judges that Social Security's combined retirement and disability trust funds will need replenishing by 2029, while the trustees put that date at 2034. Even if lawmakers very unwisely took no steps to shore up the program, it could still pay the large majority of scheduled benefits after that -- more than two-thirds according to CBO, three-fourths according to the trustees -- from scheduled tax revenues."

Research Project Abstract: Work & Retirement Choices of Men: Impact of Chile's Social Security Rules

Excerpt: As the labor force ages it becomes increasingly important to analyze whether people will work longer if they live longer, and how to encourage this behavior. This will increase the productive capacity of the economy and improve the finances of social security systems.

With New Labor Secretary, Opportunity for Decision on Retirement Security Rule Litigation Provided by Two Federal Judges

"With time still remaining on the 60-day period that the Fifth Circuit granted the DOL to decide on whether the DOL would appeal the stays granted by two Texas district courts. some decision will need to be made in order to protect the future of the Retirement Security Rule.... [T]he DOL has to look at the bigger picture, the potential for having the courts, specifically SCOTUS, decide the case. The fact that two well-respected federal judge have submitted excellent, well-reasoned opinions supporting the DOL’s process in creating and submitting the Rule cannot be overlooked in projecting the potential outcome before SCOTUS."

Protecting Low-Income Families' Savings: Retirement Account Treatment in Means-Tested Programs (PDF)

52 pages. Excerpt: This Retirement Security Project Policy Brief, written by a team of authors from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, addresses a critical impediment to retirement savings among low- and moderate-income workers: the outdated asset tests in means-tested benefit programs.