This presentation, given at the RAISE Florida Network 2013 First Quarter Regional Meeting, gives information on organizing meetings and talking points for successful asset-building discussions with state legislators.

This presentation, given at RAISE Florida Network's 2013 First Quarter Annual Meeting, discusses strategies for identifying and engaging legislators in order to promote an asset-building agenda.

Minorities clinging to the middle class have come out of the Great Recession at a higher risk for falling into poverty during the next economic crisis, according to a recent report by the Center for American Progress, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C.

The report titled, Making Sure Money Is Available When We Need It, noted that over the past 30 years, household risk exposure increased for many Americans, following the crash of the saving and loan industry in 1989, the rise and fall of the tech bubble in 2000, and most recently the collapse of housing market in 2007 that led to the Great Recession.

Households have experienced more wealth volatility since the late 1980s because there has been more risk in the market and because they have been increasingly exposed to those risks, said the report.

The study found that was 27 percent of non-White households were at “very high risk” of exposure compared to 22.7 percent for Whites. The report also said that: “The risk exposure for nonwhite households, has grown faster than the risk exposure for white families.”

Household wealth — a family’s asset-to-debt ratio — was a determining factor on a families’ ability to weather the next economic disaster and limit their exposure to financial ruin.

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For many American families, homeownership had been the key to gaining a strong foothold in the middle class and for many families in the Black community its still one of the safest assets to own. The deluge of subprime mortgages, not an inability to afford a home, changed that.

“African Americans were targeted more for subprime loans they didn’t do anything risky like start buying stocks instead of mutual funds but they wound up holding what were riskier investments by virtue of the way the housing market works, said Wilhelmina Leigh, a senior research associate at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a group that works to improve the socioeconomic status of African Americans and other people of color.

Read more at BlackVoiceNews.com.

Among U.S. workers, nearly 90 percent of Americans employed in K-12 and higher education actively save for their retirement compared to 59 percent of all American workers. In Retirement Confidence in the Education Sector: Comparisons by Race, a collaboration between the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies and the TIAA-CREF Institute, the report presents both similarities and disparities in how Black and White education workers fare with planning and managing their retirement savings.

Among education sector employees, 87 percent of African-Americans and 88 percent of Whites save for their retirement. In addition, the report discloses that nearly 80 percent of the respective groups are confident they are investing their savings properly and close to 70 percent of the groups are confident they will have enough money to live comfortably during retirement. A majority in each group say that they are confident they will not outlive their savings and approximately half have calculated how much they actually need to save to achieve this goal, according to the report.

“Building on their established base of solid savings behavior, however, the education workforce is more likely than the U.S. workforce overall to achieve the goal of a financially comfortable retirement,” the report states.

“I think overall [the report is] meaningful because it shows that in one sector, African-Americans and Whites are equally likely to be savers, or to say that they currently save, and that’s not true in all employment sectors,” said Dr. Wilhelmina Leigh, the report’s author and a Joint Center senior research associate.

“I think that’s worth noting,” she added, noting that the study grew out of discussions Leigh had with TIAA-CREF officials after she became a TIAA-CREF Institute fellow in early 2012. The Washington-based Joint Center conducts research and policy analysis on topics of concern to African-Americans and other racial minorities.

“There is something at work within the education sector environment that may not be at work in other sectors that may have fostered this particular outcome” of high rates of retirement savings confidence, she says.

Read the entire article at Diverse: Issues in Higher Education.

A report released today by the TIAA-CREF Institute and the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies reveals that both African-American and white employees in the education sector feel confident about retirement, but that more planning may be needed.

The report, “Retirement Confidence in the Education Sector: Comparisons by Race,” analyzed data for more than 2,000 employees in the education sector --administrators, staff and teachers or faculty at both the K-12 level and the post-secondary level -- on their attitudes, behaviors and preferences toward retirement. The study also analyzed how these attributes vary by race.   

According to the report, a significant majority of both African-American and white education-sector employees voice high levels of confidence regarding retirement planning:

• Approximately 90 percent of each group is currently saving for retirement.
• Nearly 80 percent of each group is confident they are investing their savings appropriately.
• About 70 percent of each group is confident they will have enough money to live comfortably during retirement.

Moreover, a majority of each group feels confident they will not outlive their savings. That said, approximately half have determined how much they actually need to save to achieve this goal.

“It is encouraging to see that retirement confidence levels are fairly high among education-sector employees,” said Stephanie Bell-Rose, senior managing director and head of the TIAA-CREF Institute. “However, it is critical that this confidence is translated into retirement readiness, which can best be achieved by investing in financial education and awareness programs, as well as increasing access to financial advice.”

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"The study confirms that the key challenges in retirement planning among education employees are essentially the same across African-American and white populations,” said Ralph B. Everett, president and CEO of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. "Too many are uncertain of how much money they need to save for a comfortable retirement, and too many feel that they are not saving enough. These are challenges we must address so that more workers can achieve a financially secure retirement."

Read the entire press release by clicking the icon below.

During the economic doldrums that have followed The Great Recession, employees in the education sector (administrators, staff, and teachers or faculty at both the K-12 level and the post-secondary level) are confident about both their retirement savings behavior and their likely retirement outcomes. African American and white American employees in the education sector are more optimistic about their retirement planning and prospects than are U.S. workers overall. Further examination of the high degree of retirement confidence among employees in the education sector, however, yields conflicting insights. This report, produced jointly by TIAA-CREF and the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, examines the retirement goals, fears, and confidence of African American and white workers in the education sector.

A key step in achieving asset-building goals is developing a solid legislative strategy. The Joint Center has collaborated with the RAISE Florida Network to develop a legislative strategy to help achieve the coalition's goals with regard to funding for Individual Development Accounts and fostering sustainable homeownership. To learn more about this strategy, view our recent webinar or browse just the webinar slides.

The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies collaborated with the Center on Race and Wealth at Howard University to host a discussion with asset-building coalition leaders from Illinois and Mississippi about the models they have used to develop their state policy agendas. Click here to view the full webinar or here for the webinar slides.

This policy initiative responds to the research conducted by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in a two-part analysis, Asset Building in Low-Income Communities of Color, Part 1 and Asset Building in Low-Income Communities of Color, Part 2, that examined and compared a wide range of policy options in twenty target states, crafted to promote asset-building in low-income communities.

The racial/ethnic wealth gap in this country is both huge and persistent. The ratio between the median net worth of white households and African American households is nearly 7:1, while the white-Hispanic ratio is nearly 5:1 (Bucks, Kennickell, and Moore 2006). Despite increased awareness of these gaps, clear consensus has yet to emerge about the steps needed to narrow them. Some of this lack of consensus relates to a lack of understanding of the causes of this disparity.

This report explores the determinants of wealth and of the racial/ethnic disparities in asset and wealth accumulation. The narrative provides an overview of past research1 that has addressed this issue and highlights the most relevant findings. Its goal is to shed light on the causes of the racial/ethnic wealth gap and to provide answers to the question, “What’s race got to do with it?”

Available in PDF format only.

To download this publication, click the file icon below.