The brief’s key findings are:

• The 2018 Trustees Report shows virtually no change:
  • Social Security’s 75-year deficit ticked up from 2.83 percent to 2.84 percent of payroll.
  • Trust fund exhaustion is still 2034, after which payroll taxes still cover about three quarters of promised benefits.
• This shortfall is manageable, but action should be taken soon to equitably share the burden among cohorts, restore public confidence, and give people time to adjust.
• One concern is whether the declining fertility rate is a lingering effect of the Great Recession or a permanent shift that could worsen Social Security’s finances.

Who are the people behind the Retirement Security Initiative’s plan to gut pensions for millions of Americans?

The brief’s key findings are:

• While the divorce rate is no longer rising, about 40 percent of marriages still end in divorce.
• The financial costs can be high: a divorcing couple pays legal fees, may need to sell illiquid assets, and has to cover the costs of two – rather than one – residence.
• Not surprisingly, the analysis finds that households with a past divorce are much more likely to be at risk for maintaining their standard of living in retirement.
• Interestingly, for one divorced group – single women – the impact is negligible, perhaps because higher child care costs are offset by retaining the house as an asset.