when funds are shifted straight from one ira

Further, the increasing prevalence of DC-type plans is likely to have broadened the relationship between earnings and pension savings. Do these three outcomes increase at the upper levels of the earnings distribution? This question is important because the connection between earnings and pension savings is likely to be a key factor influencing retirement resource accumulation during one's working life. Specifically, we investigate the extent of an earnings gradient in access to, participation in, and levels of contribution to DC retirement plans. workers prepare for retirement by examining how DC pension savings vary across the earnings distribution and whether those patterns have changed in recent years.

In this article, we attempt to advance the understanding of how U.S. In this context, it has become increasingly important to understand who has access to DC retirement plans, who participates in them, and how much the participants contribute to them (Shuey and O'Rand 2004 Ekerdt 2010 Dushi and Iams 2015 Miller 2015 Tamborini and Purcell 2016). DC plan contributions today represent the primary means of private retirement saving among American workers. In recent decades, the dominant type of private pension offering shifted from traditional defined benefit ( DB) plans to defined contribution ( DC) plans such as the familiar 401(k). The proportion of households headed by individuals aged 55–64 that have any retirement savings ranges from 9 percent in the lowest income quintile to 68 percent in the middle quintile and to 94 percent in the top quintile (Government Accountability Office 2015, Tables 1 and 3). Even more striking is the sharp variation by household income. Estimates based on the 2013 Survey of Consumer Finances indicate that 41 percent of American households headed by individuals aged 55–64 have no savings in retirement accounts. Because Social Security monthly benefits typically replace around 40 percent of monthly preretirement earnings, workers who wish to maintain their current standard of living after retiring must accumulate resources by other means yet studies document low retirement saving levels (Fisher and others 2009 Knoll, Tamborini, and Whitman 2012). In the United States, workplace pensions are a primary mode of retirement saving (Hardy and Shuey 2000 Herd 2009 O'Rand 2011 Poterba 2014 Shuey and O'Rand 2004 Warner, Hayward, and Hardy 2010). Survey of Income and Program Participation

When funds are shifted straight from one ira