Strengthening Private Sources of Retirement Savings for Low-Income Families

Brief #5 in the series Opportunity and Ownership Project

The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.

Note: This report is available in its entirety in the Portable Document Format (PDF).

Widening access to retirement savings vehicles and increasing the accumulations within these vehicles could help secure the future for many lower-income families. As it now stands, the role played by private pensions in asset building is small to nonexistent for most poor and lower-middle class workers. Instead, these persons rely primarily on Social Security and the savings in their home equity, if any, to sustain them in retirement.

Current debate over the long-term solvency of Social Security, including possible reforms that might impact vulnerable beneficiaries, calls for a much closer examination of pension participation and other retirement assets. It is crucial that gaps in data and research be identified. With this in mind, Urban Institute researchers held a roundtable to review the trends on private retirement savings and to craft a research and policy agenda.

This brief, based on that roundtable, provides background data on the assets of households in the United States today and discusses options for increasing levels of saving and retirement security, especially for low- and moderate-income families.

Note: This report is available in its entirety in the Portable Document Format (PDF).

Usage, posting and reprint of materials on the UI web site:

Most publications may be downloaded free of charge from the web site in PDF format. This information may be used and copies made for research, academic, policy or other non-commercial purposes. Proper attribution is required. Copyright of the written materials contained within the Urban Institute website is owned or controlled by the Urban Institute. Posting UI research papers on other websites is permitted subject to prior approval from the Urban Institute—contact paffairs@ui.urban.org.

If you are unable to access or print the PDF document please contact us or call the Publications Office at (202) 261-5687.

Disclaimer: The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.