Financial and Life Planning Resource Directory

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Consumers/clients: Mid-career, wealth-building Money: Social Security, pensions, annuities
Money: Social Security, pensions, annuities
	401(k) Investment Education and Advice, August 2010
		http://www.shrm.org/Research/SurveyFindings/Articles/Pages/401(k)InvestmentAdvice.aspx, Free A summary and PowerPoint presentation of a study of the prevalence and kinds of financial advice that employers make available to 401(k) plan participants.
	Biggs, Andrew G., et al, Treatment of Married Women by the Social Security Retirement Program, The
		Boston College Center for Retirement Research, November 2010, Free http://crr.bc.edu/images/stories/Working_Papers/wp2010_18.pdf The authors observe that while Social Security benefits are relatively generous for married women compared to men, for many women they provide little or no incentive to work.
	Brady, Peter J., Can 401(k) Plans Provide Adequate Retirement Resources?
		Pension Research Council, 2009, Free http://www.pensionresearchcouncil.org/publications/document.php?file=709 Brady argues that moderate 401(k) contribution rates can lead to adequate income replacement rates in retirement for many workers; that adequate asset accumulation can be achieved using only a 401(k) plan; and that these results do not rely on earning an investment premium on risky assets.
	Butrica, Barbara A., and Johnson, Richard W., Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Differentials in Employer-Sponsored Pensions
		Urban Institute, June 2010, Free http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/901357-racial-ethnic-gender-differentials.pdf Testimony before the ERISA Advisory Council.
	Butrica, Barbara A., et al, Disappearing Defined Benefit Pension and its Potential Impact on the Retirement Incomes of Boomers, The
		Boston College Center for Retirement Research, January 2009, Free http://crr.bc.edu/images/stories/Working_Papers/wp_2009_2.pdf The authors determine that if defined benefit plans are frozen and replaced with defined contribution plans, there will be more losers than winners, especially among higher-income baby boomers.
	Copeland, Craig, Employment-Based Retirement Plan Participation: Geographic Differences and Trends, 2007
		Employee Benefits Research Institute, October 2008, Free http://www.ebri.org/pdf/briefspdf/EBRI_IB_10-2008.pdf This study looks at census data, plan sponsorship, and plan participation, geographically and by other factors.
	Copeland, Craig, Individual Account Retirement Plans: An Analysis of the 2007 Survey of Consumer Finances, with Market Adjustments to June 2009
		Employee Benefits Research Institute, August 2009, Free http://www.ebri.org/pdf/briefspdf/EBRI_IB_8-2009_No333_SCF.pdf Copeland documents the relatively meager retirement savings in the typical account, which were further reduced by the economic downturn.
	Copeland, Craig, IRA Balances and Contributions: An Overview of the EBRI IRA Database
		Employee Benefits Research Institute, September 2010, Free http://www.ebri.org/pdf/briefspdf/EBRI_IB_09-2010_No346_IRA1.pdf IRA plan participation data.
	Copeland, Craig, Target-Date Fund Use in 401(k) Plans and the Persistence of Their Use, 2007-2009
		Employee Benefits Research Institute, August 2011, Free http://www.ebri.org/publications/ib/index.cfm?fa=ibDisp&content_id=4871 The data shows that use of target date funds continued to rise moderately during 2007-2009 (notwithstanding the stock market crash), and reached 43.2% of participants in 2009 with at least a portion of their 401(k) balance allocated to TDFs.
	Employment-Based Retirement Plan Participation: Geographic Differences and Trends, 2008
		Employee Benefits Research Institute, November 2009, Free http://www.ebri.org/pdf/briefspdf/EBRI_IB_11-2009_No336_Ret-Part.pdf About 56% of all workers, and 63% of full-year wage and salary workers, ages 21–64, worked for an employer or union that sponsors a retirement plan.
	Enduring Confidence in the 401(k) System: Investor Attitudes and Actions
		Investment Company Institute, January 2010, Free http://www.ici.org/pdf/ppr_10_ret_saving.pdf This report shows continued consumer support for 401(k) plans and, perhaps surprisingly, continued low levels of loans and withdrawals combined with steady levels of new contributions, despite the 2009 recession.
	Hastings, Justine, et al, "Financial Literacy and Pension Fees", Trends and Issues, February 2011
		http://www.tiaa-crefinstitute.org/pdf/research/trends_issues/ti_financialpension0211.pdf, Free The authors find that how the impact of fund fees is illustrated to participants has an impact on their understanding and their choices, and that the benefit is greater for those who are less financially literate.
	How does your 401(k) Match Up? (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)
		http://www.bls.gov/opub/cwc/cm20100520ar01p1.htm Helps you compare any particular 401(k) plan with typical plans and provisions nationwide.
	Kapinos, Kandice A., Changes in Firm Pension Policy: Trends Away from Traditional Defined Benefit Plans
		Boston College Center for Retirement Research, February 2011, Free http://crr.bc.edu/images/stories/Working_Papers/wp_2011-6.pdf Kapinos looks into the participant characteristics of DB plans that converted to Cash Balance plans, and consistently finds positive associations be-tween firms with older and female workforces and having defined contribution plans during the same time.
	Karamcheva, Nadia, and Sanzenbacher, Geoffrey, Is Pension Inequality Growing?
		Boston College Center for Retirement Research, January 2010, Free http://crr.bc.edu/images/stories/Briefs/ib_10-1.pdf The authors find that with the growth of defined contribution plans, participation has been declining in the lower third of income earners (though participation rates overall are fairly steady), and that automatic enrollment has not boosted participation for the lower two-thirds of income earners.
	Kobe, Kathryn, Small Business Retirement Plan Availability and Worker Participation
		U.S. Small Business Administration, March 2010, Free http://www.sba.gov/advo/research/rs361tot.pdf Kobe investigates the availability of retirement plans in U.S. businesses, the participation rates, and the reasons why employees fail to participate
	Lemoine, Craig, et al, "Achieving Sustainable Retirement Withdrawals: A Combined Equity and Annuity Approach", Journal of Financial Planning, January 2010 (Vol. 23, No. 1)
		The authors compare mixes of equities and bonds with different rebalancing strategies, but find that using an equity portfolio with a fixed annuity component provides the best chance of sustaining withdrawal rates.
	McFarland, Brendan, and Kummernuss, Erika, Pension Freezes Continue Among Fortune 1000 Companies in 2010
		Towers Watson, September 2010, Free http://www.towerswatson.com/united-states/newsletters/insider/2761 McFarland and Kummernuss reveal that among large corporations, the number of defined benefit pension plans continues to fall, but at a decelerating pace.
	Munnell, Alicia H., and Quinby, Laura, Pension Coverage and Retirement Security
		Boston College Center for Retirement Research, December 2009, Free http://crr.bc.edu/images/stories/Briefs/ib_9-26.pdf The authors note that about one-third of working people are not covered at all by pension plans, and that for those who are, people are moving in and out of employer-based coverage, leading to far smaller accumulations than what one would expect based on spreadsheet calculations.
	Private Pensions: Some Key Features Lead to an Uneven Distribution of Benefits
		U.S. General Accounting Office, March 30, 2011, Free http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d11333.pdf This report concludes that for those in a pension plan, there is concern that tax incentives accrue primarily to higher income employees and do relatively little to help lower income workers save for retirement.
	"BLS Examines Popular 401(k) Retirement Plans", Program Perspectives, November 2010 (Vol. 2, No. 6)
		http://www.bls.gov/opub/perspectives/program_perspectives_vol2_issue6.pdf, Free Data on 401(k) plan participation.
	Retirement Benefits for U.S. Workers Declined 19% Between 1998 and 2008, July 22, 2010
		http://www.towerswatson.com/press/2477, Free The decline reported in this press release represents a 53% drop in Defined Benefit plans and a 38% increase in Defined Contribution plans. The biggest drops were in Retail/Wholesale and in Manufacturing. Only the service sector showed a small net gain,
	Retirement Plan Participation: Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) Data, 2006
		Employee Benefits Research Institute, 2009, Free http://www.ebri.org/pdf/notespdf/EBRI_Notes_Feb09.Ret-Partic.pdf This analysis indicates a reduction in participation rates from their 2003 level, back down to 1998 levels.
	Retirement Readiness: Bridging the Gap Across Generations
		AON / Hewitt, December 2010, Free http://www.aon.com/attachments/RetirementReadiness_2010_Highlights.pdf This study examines participant behavior in defined contribution plans and expected consequences for retirement readiness across three generations — Generation Y, Generation X and younger Baby Boomers.
	SSI Recipients by State and County, 2009 (U.S. Social Security Administration), 2010
		http://www.socialsecurity.gov/policy/docs/statcomps/ssi_sc/2009/index.html, Free Results are available in HTML, PDF, or XLS format.
	Tang, Ning, et al, Efficiency of Pension Menus and Individual Portfolio Choice in 401(k) Pensions, The
		Michigan Retirement Research Center, July 2009, Free http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/papers/pdf/WP203.pdf The authors report that while most plans offer an appropriate array of investment options, the allocation choices that participants make are poor, and these poor choices are the cause of 75% of losses.
	Tang, Ning, et al, Efficiency of Sponsor and Participant Portfolios Choices in 401(k) Plans, The
		Pension Research Council, 2009, Free http://www.pensionresearchcouncil.org/publications/document.php?file=800 The authors compare the portfolio choices, and their results, for pension plan participants and sponsors.
	Toolson, Richard B., and Craig, Caroline K., "Should Prospective Retirees Forgo Tax-Deductible Contributions to Retirement Plans to Reduce Required Minimum Distribution Payments?", Journal of Financial Service Professionals, March 2010
		Toolson and Craig analyze how this question can be answered in light of potential future increases in federal tax rates.
	Utkus, Stephen P., and Young, Jean A., Update on Participant Behavior through June 2009
		Vanguard, August 2009, Free https://institutional.vanguard.com/iam/pdf/CRRNPB.pdf The authors observe that most plan participants made no changes to their retirement savings and investment program.
	VanDerhei, Jack, et al, 401(k) Plan Asset Allocation, Account Balances, and Loan Activity in 2009
		Employee Benefits Research Institute, November 2010, Free http://www.ebri.org/pdf/briefspdf/EBRI_IB_011-2010_No350_401k_Update-092.pdf Data on 401(k) plan participation.
	VanDerhei, Jack, et al, What Does Consistent Participation in 401(k) Plans Generate?
		Employee Benefits Research Institute, July 2009, Free http://www.ebri.org/pdf/briefspdf/EBRI_IB_7-2009_No332-SR_ConsistPart.pdf The authors document how contribution amounts, investment results, and loan/withdrawal activity determine how well 401(k) accounts do.