Abstract Currently, Congress provides favorable tax treatment to two types of qualified pension plans - those which are integrated and those which are not. This research examined 522 integrated and 441 nonintegrated plans. The characteristics of employers adopting these plans and the level and adequacy of retirement benefits provided by these plans were analyzed. Generally, the employer's choice of a qualified pension plan for its particular employee group resulted in benefit adequacy for all employee groups except those with low years of service. The results of this study suggest that future pension tax reform should focus on issues of immediate vesting and portability of benefits.
Collins et al. (Mon,) studied this question.