Home Retirement Resource Center Retirement Plans: Workers’ Access & Support Mobile Workforce, Portable Benefits
Mobile Workforce, Portable Benefits
American workers are mobile, moving from job to job or even from career to career. That puts a premium on retirement benefits that are “portable”—benefits that can travel with a worker and continue to grow throughout his or her lifetime. Defined contribution (DC) plans, such as 401(k) plans, provide this portability.
Taking into account the risks faced by retirement plan participants—for example, the investment risk faced by workers in DC plans and the job-turnover risk faced by workers in defined benefit (DB) plans—several studies have concluded that the majority of workers who have access only to DC plans during their working careers will be better off than if they had access only to DB plans.
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- Comment, Washington Post: Let’s Give the US Retirement System the Credit It DeservesDec 27, 2017
- ICI Survey Finds Strategic IRA Use by Retirement Savers
Jan 12, 2017
- Traditional IRA Investors Are Older, More Likely to Have Rollovers Than Roth IRA Investors
Aug 4, 2016
- 403(b) Plans Offer Diverse Investment Opportunities
May 23, 2016
- IRA Owners Follow a Strategy in Retirement Planning
Feb 18, 2016
- 403(b) Plans Offer Diverse Array of Investment Options
Jun 30, 2015
- Key Facts and Positions: Access to Retirement Accounts Prior to Retirement (pdf)
Apr 22, 2013
- The Future of Retirement
Sep 27, 2012
- "The Decline of Defined Benefit Plans and Job Tenure," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance (July 2009)
- "Defined Contribution Plans, Defined Benefit Plans, and the Accumulation of Retirement Wealth," Journal of Public Economics (November 2007)
- “How Will 401(k) Pension Plans Affect Retirement Income?” American Economic Review (March 2004)
