Featured Reports

The Book 'Aging Gracefully: Ideas to Improve Retirement Security in America' (Spring 2007 Trust Magazine briefing)

A proposes legislative and administrative changes that would make saving for retirement easier for middle- and lower-income households, while at the same time offering practical savings ideas for workers. Aging Gracefully: Ideas to Improve Retirement Security in America was published by the Century Foundation Press and written by William G. Gale, J. Mark Iwry and Peter R. Orszag, Brookings Institution scholars who are principals of the Pew-supported Retirement Security Project, a partnership of Brookings and Georgetown University’s Public Policy Institute.

Time for Reform: Too Many Birthdays in Foster Care

This report provides an introduction to the foster care system and describes what life is like for the more than 500,000 children in foster care who are waiting for reforms that would help them return to their families or find new permanent families. Foster care provides a temporary place for children and youth to stay when they are removed from their families because of abuse or neglect. But what was intended as a temporary solution has become a long-term state of uncertainty for many children. More info

The Potential Effects of Retirement Security Project Proposals on Private and National Saving

This paper from The Retirement Security Project provides rough, ballpark calculations of how several recent proposals could affect private and national saving. The proposals, aimed at improving retirement security for middle- and low-income households, include automatic 401(k)s, automatic IRAs, an expanded and permanent Saver's Credit, split refund capability, and asset test reforms. With the current net national saving rate at about 2.5 percent of GDP, these proposals have the potential to raise net national saving by almost a quarter.

Public Health at Risk

The Human Genome Project unleashed a torrent of information about the human genome and the role of genetic variation in human health. As a result, genetic testing is now among the fastest growing areas of laboratory medicine. Today, genetic tests for about 1000 diseases are clinically available, with hundreds more available in a research setting.

Automating Savings: Making Retirement Savings Easier

Industrialized societies are facing major challenges with respect to their citizens’ retirement security. Across the globe, populations are aging rapidly. At the same time, too many households are not saving adequately for their retirement and other long-term needs even though saving vehicles are available.

This policy brief summarizes major parallel efforts currently under consideration in the U.S., the UK and New Zealand to address the retirement security shortfall by expanding personal saving for retirement.

Notes from the President: Passages (Winter 2005-2006 Trust Magazine)

Is any institution so perfectly organized as to be immune to change? For sure, organizations must be well designed for their mission, but also adapt to changing times—not to fads, but to the deeper currents that distinguish an era. Those that reinvent themselves are more likely to be relevant to the next generation.

Creating a Genetic Testing Specialty Under CLIA

Since the inception of the Human Genome Project in 1990, genetic testing has become an increasingly integral component in the diagnosis, treatment, management, and prevention of numerous diseases and conditions. Today, the number of genetic tests available is rising dramatically, with new tests entering the healthcare market every day. Information gained from genetic test results has a significant impact on medical decision-making.

Leveraging Tax Refunds to Encourage Saving

One of the most auspicious ways to make it easier for households to save, for retirement and other purposes, is by allowing them to directly deposit part of their income tax refund into a savings vehicle. This policy brief examines ways of encouraging households to save at one of their most "savable" moments: when they learn they will receive a substantial federal tax refund.