The Financial Crisis and Private Defined Benefit Plans

The Financial Crisis and Private Defined Benefit Plans
by Alicia H. Munnell, Jean-Pierre Aubry, and Dan Muldoon
IB#8-18

Between October 9, 2007 and October 9, 2008, the value of equities in retirement plans dropped by about $4 trillion, with the decline divided equally between defined benefit and 401(k)/Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs). The decline in the defined benefit arena was in turn divided equally between private sector plans and those sponsored by state and local governments. This brief explores what a loss of roughly $1 trillion of private sector defined benefit equities means for the individual participants and for the firms that sponsor those plans.

Read more