What Happened to Late Boomers’ Retirement Wealth?

The brief’s key findings are:
Late Boomers have less retirement wealth than earlier cohorts, including surprisingly low 401(k) assets.
To explain this drop, the analysis explored both changing demographics and labor market experiences.
The results show that part of the drop is due to a decline in the share of Late Boomers who are White, married, and have college degrees.
The main factor, though, is that Late Boomers saw a weakening in the link between work and wealth due to the Great Recession.
The Great Recession story is a bit of good news for younger cohorts, as some of the downward pressure on their wealth holdings should abate.