Americans rely on a mix of Social Security benefits, employer retirement plan benefits, and earnings to support themselves during retirement. However, around 30% of private sector workers do not have access to a retirement savings plan, and only slightly more than half of all workers participate in one. In the last decade, almost every state has either considered or enacted legislation to establish state-facilitated retirement savings programs. This brief looks at recent studies examining the impact of these programs on access and accumulation, as well as their interaction with private market retirement plan coverage, and potential interactions with other policies due to asset limits.

For this policy report, The Harkin Institute partnered with AARP and Limelight Insights by Shugoll to conduct in-depth interviews (IDIs) with volunteer counselors supporting the Iowa Senior Health Insurance Information Program (SHIIP) and Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP) office. Participants were asked to share their experiences in providing Medicare counseling and support services to Medicare beneficiaries. Within this policy report, our research team shares the key findings and themes from the IDIs and outlines several recommendations for expanding upon (and improving) the quality of service provided to Medicare beneficiaries through the Iowa SHIIP-SMP program.

This policy brief explores some of the challenges Medicare beneficiaries face during both the initial enrollment period as well as the annual enrollment period. While there are resources available to help beneficiaries navigate the Medicare enrollment process, research has shown beneficiaries tend to rely on advice and support from insurance brokers, family, and friends, while unbiased resources tend to be underutilized. This has led to an environment where beneficiaries feel unequipped to compare and contrast plan options, which can lead to circumstances where many beneficiaries fail to compare plans effectively and enroll in suboptimal coverage. 

The multi-decade transition from Defined Benefit (DB) pension plans to Defined Contribution (DC) plans (mostly 401k plans) has reduced retiree access to reliable lifetime income that eliminated retiree longevity and investment risk. The prevalent lifetime income options for retirees in a DC system include (1) a systematic drawdown of their retirement accounts or (2) the purchase of annuities whereby risk is transferred to an insurance company. While both of these strategies have some advantages, a third option may result in greater lifetime retirement income for the same amount of retirement savings. Specifically, a longevity pooling strategy can result in 26% higher benefits when compared to a systematic drawdown strategy, and 17% higher benefits when compared to an immediate annuity at age 65. 

Financial literacy is recognized as an essential skill in our complex world, and the last couple of decades have seen significant changes to state K-12 financial education standards. This policy brief provides an update of the current standards by state and the coursework required to meet the standards and concludes with a brief summary of studies evaluating the impact of the state requirements on financial outcomes.

Half of U.S. employees do not participate in a retirement savings program in their workplace. Part-time and low-wage employees, and those employed by small businesses and in service occupations, have the lowest access and participation rates. This brief examines the role of state retirement savings programs in addressing this problem.