EBRI/ICI 401(K) DATABASE: The annual EBRI/ICI 401(k) database update report is based on large cross-sections of 401(k) plan participants. Whereas the cross-sections cover participants with a wide range of participation experience in 401(k) plans, meaningful analysis of the potential for 401(k) participants to accumulate retirement assets over time must examine how a consistent group of particip...

The annual EBRI/ICI 401(k) database update report is based on large cross-sections of 401(k) plan participants. Whereas the cross-sections cover participants with a wide range of participation experience in 401(k) plans, meaningful analysis of the potential for 401(k) participants to accumulate retirement assets must examine how a consistent group of participants’ accounts change over time. Loo...

EBRI, ICI Maintain Largest 401(k) Participant Database Over the past two decades, 401(k) plans have grown to be the most common type of employer-sponsored retirement plan in the United States, and now serve as the most popular defi ned contribution (DC) plan, as measured by number of participants and assets. In 2005, 47 million American workers were active 401(k) plan participants.1 By year-end...

I. OVERVIEW AND SUMMARY The 401(k) plan is only about 20 years old, which means that individuals retiring today could have participated in 401(k) plans for at most half of a typical full working career. As more American workers participate in 401(k) plans and become increasingly responsible for their own retirement security, the question of whether their 401(k) accumulations will produce suffic...

1Assistant Director of ICU at Naval and Veterans Hospital of Athens, Former Director of Intensive Care Unit (CS-ICU) of Joint Corps Armed Forces Cardiac Surgery Department, 401 General Military Hospital of Athens, Greece 2Consultant Cardiac Surgeon of Cardiac Surgery Department, Joint Corps Armed Forces Cardiac Surgery Department, 401 General Military Hospital of Athens, Greece 3Consultant Inte...

Because 401(k) balances can fluctuate with market returns from year to year, meaningful analysis of 401(k) plans must examine how participants' accounts have performed over the long term. Looking at consistent participants in the EBRI/ICI 401(k) database over the five-year period from 2003 to 2008 (which included one of the worst bear markets for stocks since the Great Depression), the study fo...