Featured Reports

Retirement Security For Latinos

Too many Americans — and too many Latinos in particular — are not saving adequately for retirement. Half of all households nearing retirement have only $10,000 or less in an employer-based 401(k)-type plan or Individual Retirement Account (IRA). Among Hispanics, the figures are even more astonishing: over half of Hispanic households aged 55 to 59 have no accumulated assets in a 401(k) or IRA. A variety of other measures confirm that Latinos are disproportionately likely to be undersaving. This report discusses ways to address this problem.

Automatic Investment: Improving 401(k) Portfolio Investment Choices

Self-direction of investments is a common feature of 401(k) plans, but it is not working as well as it could. Employees frequently fail to diversify their investments or rebalance their portfolios over time. One concern is that workers often invest too large a share of their 401(k) savings in their employer’s stock, which can prove especially costly: if the employer falls on hard times, workers stand to lose not only their jobs but also their retirement savings. But even when the plan sponsor does not collapse, poor investment choices impose unnecessary risk on workers, threaten the level and security of retirement income, and reduce the public policy benefits from 401(k) tax preferences.

The Automatic 401(k): A Simple Way to Strengthen Retirement Savings

Over the past quarter century, private pension plans in the United States have trended toward a do-it-yourself approach, in which covered workers bear more investment risk and make more of their own decisions about their retirement savings. Some workers have thrived under this more individualized approach, amassing sizable balances in 401(k)s and similar plans, which will assure them a comfortable and relatively secure retirement income.

For others, however, the 401(k) revolution has fallen short of its potential. Work, family, and other more immediate demands often distract workers from the need to save and invest for the future. A disarmingly simple concept—what we call the automatic 401(k)”—has thepotential to cut through this Gordian knot and improve retirement security for millions of workers through a set of common sense reforms.

Common Sense Reforms to Promote Retirement Security

As the baby boomers near retirement, defects in the nation’s private pension system are becoming obvious. Only about half of workers contribute to an employer-sponsored pension plan in any given year, and Individual Retirement Account (IRA) participation rates are substantially lower. Among workers with tax-preferred retirement saving plans, few make the maximum allowable contribution. And despite the many private savings incentives, many households approach retirement with meager funds.

Fostering the Future: Safety, Permanence and Well-Being for Children in Foster Care

All children need safe, permanent families that love, nurture, protect, and guide them. This was the starting point for the work of the Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care and a steady compass throughout our deliberations. More info

Nation's Child Welfare System Doubles Number of Adoptions from Foster Care

The United States Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) recently announced the awarding of the final round of currently authorized adoption incentive payments (totaling $14.9 million to 25 states and Puerto Rico) for increasing the number of children adopted from state-supervised foster care in fiscal year 2002. These incentive payments, announced every year at the close of the federal fiscal year, are part of a sweeping set of reforms outlined in the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 (ASFA). The enactment of ASFA was coupled with a call to double the number of adoptions from the nation’s child welfare system by 2002. Our nation’s child welfare system succeeded in meeting this challenge, more than doubling the number of adoptions out of foster care by 2002. More info