Download or read book Participation in and Contributions to 401 k Pension Plans written by Leslie E. Papke and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 401(k) plans differ from traditional employer-sponsored pension plans in that employees are permitted to make pre-tax contributions and the employer may match pan of the contribution. Since participation in these plans is voluntary, the sensitivity of participation and contributions to plan characteristics - notably the employer matching rate -- will play a critical role in retirement saving. Using plan level data from Form 5500s filed annually with the Internal Revenue Service, I find that there is potential for expanding retirement saving through 401(k) plans although there is evidence that the Tax Reform Act of 1986 reduced their attractiveness. Annual employee contributions were reduced by about 4 percent compared to the prior year after controlling for employer match rates. A simple model of employee contributions predicts that participation should increase with the match rate, and that, under reasonable assumptions, contributions will increase as well, but can eventually fall at higher match rates. I find evidence of both these effects. A .05 increase in the matching rate is associated with one to five percent increase in employee contributions.
Download or read book Participation in and Contributions to 401 k Pension Plans written by Leslie E. Papke and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 401(k) plans differ from traditional employer-sponsored pension plans in that employees are permitted to make pre-tax contributions and the employer may match pan of the contribution. Since participation in these plans is voluntary, the sensitivity of participation and contributions to plan characteristics - notably the employer matching rate -- will play a critical role in retirement saving. Using plan level data from Form 5500s filed annually with the Internal Revenue Service, I find that there is potential for expanding retirement saving through 401(k) plans although there is evidence that the Tax Reform Act of 1986 reduced their attractiveness. Annual employee contributions were reduced by about 4 percent compared to the prior year after controlling for employer match rates. A simple model of employee contributions predicts that participation should increase with the match rate, and that, under reasonable assumptions, contributions will increase as well, but can eventually fall at higher match rates. I find evidence of both these effects. A .05 increase in the matching rate is associated with one to five percent increase in employee contributions.
Download or read book 401 k Pension Plans written by United States. General Accounting Office and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Living with Defined Contribution Pensions written by Olivia S. Mitchell and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 1998-05-29 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Table of Contents
Download or read book How Workers Use 401 K Plans written by William F. Bassett and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This paper examines how workers use 401(k) plans by examining their participation, contribution, and withdrawal decisions. Sixty-five percent of eligible workers participate in 401(k) plans. Employee participation rises with income, age, job tenure, and education. While participation also rises if the employer matches contributions, 401(k) participation does not grow with the rate of matching. When pension plan assets are withdrawn in lump-sum distributions before retirement, just 28 percent of distribution recipients (representing 56 percent of distribution assets) roll over the withdrawn funds into tax-qualified savings plans. Our findings suggest that many workers, particularly those with low incomes, do not use 401(k) plans to save for retirement"--Abstract
Download or read book 401 k Pension Plans written by United States. General Accounting Office and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Participation in and Contributions to 401 k Pensions Plans written by and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Coming Up Short written by Alicia Haydock Munnell and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, two experts on retirement policy analyze 401(k) plans, the fastest-growing type of employer-sponsored pensions and a vital source of retirement income for the American middle class.
Download or read book Substitutability Between 401 k Wealth and Pension Wealth written by James Roman Eisner and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 462 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book 401 k Plans Participation and Deferral Rates by Plan Features and Other Information written by United States. General Accounting Office and published by . This book was released on 1988 with total page 12 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book 401 Pension Plans written by U S Government Accountability Office (G and published by BiblioGov. This book was released on 2013-06 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on: (1) the extent to which 401(k) plan assets are invested in employer securities and real property; (2) the protection and any possible problems associated with the recent amendments to title I of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA); and (3) alternate mechanisms that might safeguard the retirement benefits of participants in 401(k) plans in which the employer decides how to invest assets. GAO noted that: (1) only 2,449 of about 160,000 401(k) plans owned employer securities or real property in 1993; (2) these plans owned $53 billion of employer securities and real property and covered 5.3 million plan participants; (3) in most of these plans, plan participants directed the investment of their own contributions; (4) plans for which the employer solely decided how to invest assets totalled 756; (5) in these plans, employees exercised no control over how their 401(k) plan assets were invested and the employer made all the investment decisions; (6) these plans covered 1.4 million participants and had $12.3 billion invested in employer securities and real property; (7) in August 1997, the Congress amended title I of ERISA to provide that not more than 10 percent of employee contributions be invested in employer securities and real property by defined contribution 401(k) plans requiring that employee contributions be invested in this way; (8) this change increases protection for 401(k) plan participants; (9) the 10-percent limitation rule alone does not, however, prevent plans from investing employee contributions in employer securities and real property whose value is declining; (10) some of the information needed to implement and enforce the new legislation is not readily available; (11) proposed changes to the Department of Labor's Form 5500, if implemented, may remedy some of the data deficiencies; (12) other mechanisms are available to policymakers if alternate safeguards are needed in the future; and (13) these mechanisms include enhanced reporting and disclosure, prescribed education programs, adoption of the diversification requirement used for employee stock option ownership plans, and use of independent fiduciaries to examine investment decisions.
Download or read book How Workers Use 401 K Plans written by Michael J. Fleming and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper examines how workers use 401(k) plans by examining their participation, contribution, and withdrawal decisions. Sixty-five percent of eligible workers participate in 401(k) plans. Employee participation rises with income, age, job tenure, and education. While participation also rises if the employer matches contributions, 401(k) participation does not grow with the rate of matching. When pension plan assets are withdrawn in lump-sum distributions before retirement, just 28 percent of distribution recipients (representing 56 percent of distribution assets) roll over the withdrawn funds into tax-qualified savings plans. Our findings suggest that many workers, particularly those with low incomes, do not use 401(k) plans to save for retirement.
Download or read book Corporate and Private Pension Plans in the United States written by Yildiz Saglik and published by diplom.de. This book was released on 2009-12-21 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inhaltsangabe:Introduction: This thesis gives in chapter A an understanding of the relevance of corporate and private pension plans for the U.S. work force. Chapter B examines the regulatory environment of qualified pension plans, the tax treatment of transactions on the employer and employee side and the multitudinous pension plan qualification standards. The main part of this thesis, chapter C, navigates the reader through basic plan types in the private sector including employer-sponsored plans and individual retirement arrangements. Chapter D deals critically with the opportunities and risks as a result of the structural shift in the retirement plan landscape from defined benefit to defined contribution plans in general, and to 401(k) plans in particular. Further, it gives a forecast on pension shortfalls for future retirees according to recent studies of governmental and private institutions and captures the impact of the current financial crisis on plan funds and the reactions of plan participants thereon. Inhaltsverzeichnis:Table of Contents: List of TablesVII List of AbbreviationsIX A)Introduction1 I.Brief History of Pension Plans in the United States1 II.Relevance of Pension Plans for the American Population3 1)Tax Advantages for Employers3 2)Income Security for Employees4 3)Supplemental of Social Security System5 4)Prevalence of Corporate Pension Plans8 (a)Sponsoring and Participation Level by Work Group8 (b)Sponsoring and Participation Level by Plan Type9 (c)Pension and Annuity Income Levels10 5)Relevance of Individual Retirement Arrangements11 6)Influence on Financial Markets12 7)Further Areas of Pension Coverage14 (a)Self-employed Individuals14 (b)Unions as Co-founder of Pension Plan Trusts15 iMultiemployer Plans15 iiMultiple Employer Plans15 iiiSingle Employer Plans16 (c)Governmental Employees16 B)Regulatory Environment of Retirement Plans18 I.Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 197418 II.Trusts19 1)Pension Trust Triangle19 2)Tax Exemption of Trusts20 3)Prudent Man Rule20 4)Funding20 5)Legal Force and Creditor Protection21 6)ERISA vs. State Law21 III.Systematic Segmentation22 IV.Tax Regulations for Qualified Retirement Plans23 1)An Overview of the Current Tax System23 2)Tax Treatment of Transactions24 (a)Contributions24 iEmployee Contributions24 iiEmployer Contributions25 (b)Distributions26 iAveraging Method for Lump Sum Distributions26 iiTax Deferrals on Net Unrealized Appreciation in [...]
Download or read book Private Pensions Information That Sponsors and Participants need to Understand 401 k Plan Fees written by and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2007 with total page 20 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Private Pensions written by Barbara D. Boubjerg and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2007-07 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past 20 years there has been a shift in the types of pension plans employers are offering employees. Employers are increasingly moving away from traditional defined benefit plans to the 401(k). Specific info. about the plan & plan options becomes more relevant than under defined benefit plans because participants are responsible for ensuring that they have adequate income at retirement. While info. on historical performance & investment risk for each plan option are important for participants to understand, so too is info. on fees because fees can significantly decrease participants¿ retirement savings over the course of a career. This testimony focuses on: trends in the use of 401(k) plans; & the types of fees assoc. with these plans. Illus.
Download or read book Are 401 k Plans Replacing Other Employer provided Pensions written by Leslie E. Papke and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper examines whether sponsors of traditional defined benefit (DB) plans are replacing them with 401(k) or other defined contribution (DC) plans. I compare pension plan offerings by sponsors of a DB plan in 1985 with their offerings in 1992 using Form 5500 filings from those two years. I find that 401(k) and other DC plans are substituting for terminated DB plans and that offering a DC plan of any type increases the probability of a DB termination. Thus, it appears that, at the sponsor level, many of the new 401(k) plans may not be avenues for net saving but are replacements for the more traditional pension forms. Using several specifications, I estimate that a sponsor that starts with no 401(k) or other DC plan and adds a 401(k) is predicted to reduce the number of DB plans offered by at least 0.3. That is, the estimates imply that one sponsor terminates a DB plan for about every three sponsors that offer one new 401(k) plan. The addition of a non-401(k) DC plan is estimated to reduce DB plan offerings by at least 0.4. Plan-level point estimates indicate that if a 401(k) plan is added by a sponsor, the DB termination probability increases by about 18 percentage points to 35 percent. The addition of a non-401(k) DC plan similarly increases the probability that an accompanying DB plan will be terminated.
Download or read book Employer Matching and 401 k Saving written by Gary V. Engelhardt and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Employer matching of employee 401(k) contributions can provide a powerful incentive to save for retirement and is a key component in pension-plan design in the United States. Using detailed administrative contribution, earnings, and pension-plan data from the Health and Retirement Study, this analysis formulates a life-cycle-consistent econometric specification of 401(k) saving and estimates the determinants of saving accounting for non-linearities in the household budget set induced by matching. The participation estimates indicate that an increase in the match rate by 25 cents per dollar of employee contribution raises 401(k) participation by 3.75 to 6 percentage points, and the estimated elasticity of participation with respect to matching ranges from 0.02-0.07. The parametric and semi-parametric estimates for saving indicate that an increase in the match rate by 25 cents per dollar of employee contribution raises 401(k) saving by $400-$700 (in 1991 dollars). The estimated elasticity of 401(k) saving to matching is also small and ranges from 0.09-0.12 overall, with just under half of this effect on the intensive margin. Overall, the analysis reveals that matching is a rather poor policy instrument with which to raise retirement saving.
