New Report Reveals How Retirement Plan Design Can Address the Racial and Gender Retirement Savings Gap - Seite 2

“Through CFERS, we are working to ensure that retirement plan participants can reach their retirement and broader financial goals. Examining the retirement savings data, and the underlying behaviors, around the existing disparities has unveiled preliminary insights that will help the retirement savings system evolve to address the racial and gender wealth gap,” said Lew Minsky, president and chief executive officer of DCIIA.

“Retirement savings are the second largest source of household wealth in the U.S., which means that our efforts to close larger racial and gender wealth gaps require a retirement savings system that works for everyone,” said Karen Biddle Andres, director of impact strategy and partnerships at the Aspen Institute Financial Security Program. “This report signals that minor plan and benefit changes can likely translate to significant increases in the retirement savings balances of Black and Hispanic households in particular. Continuing this level of cross-sector collaboration, testing, and innovation will help our retirement savings system realize its promise in Americans’ financial lives.”

The Collaborative’s first publication is focused on its first two of five phases of analysis. The five phases are: identifying existing racial and gender disparities in account balances after controlling for salary and tenure; identifying the causes of such disparities by analyzing race/gender differences in participation, contribution, asset allocation, and loan and preretirement withdrawal behavior; incorporating a stochastic accumulation model to show how these disparities will evolve by retirement age; focusing on how plan design, benefit, and policy changes are likely to influence disparities; and incorporating the stochastic decumulation module from the Morningstar Model of U.S. Retirement Outcomes to allow for the analysis of various risk management techniques. A summary of the first report can be found here.

About The Collaborative for Equitable Retirement Savings

The Collaborative for Equitable Retirement Savings is a multi-stakeholder initiative in the U.S. that aims to make retirement savings more inclusive by addressing and mitigating race and gender disparities in 401(k) plans. The coalition analyzes challenges and opportunities for equitable retirement savings through data-driven research and analysis; champions policy changes and best practices for employers and recordkeepers to promote diverse participation and savings in 401(k) plans; provides resources and tools to raise awareness about retirement savings disparities and empower individuals to make informed decisions; and brings together key stakeholders from across the retirement industry to work towards solutions. For more information, visit https://www.cfers.org.