DOL Pension Plan Studies

The Department of Labor Employee Benefits Security Administration National Office established this Master IDIQ on September 30, 2014, with a last date to order of September 29, 2019—ordering closed more than six years ago and the vehicle is no longer active. The contract procures economic and statistical studies related to employer-provided pension plans, including regulatory impact analyses, household retirement savings behavior, annuitization patterns, plan design, and fiduciary compliance risk. This vehicle is closed to new orders and unsuitable for pursuit.

The IDIQ awarded 26 task orders over its active period, with ordering activity concentrated in 2014 and 2015 (eight and ten orders respectively) and declining sharply by 2017 (one order). Combined task-order potential value totaled $8.5 million, with $7.7 million obligated (90% of combined potential). Task orders ranged from roughly $117 thousand to $2.2 million in ceiling value, with most studies priced as firm fixed-price deliverables spanning one to three years.

Competition concentrated heavily among three economic research firms. The Urban Institute held six orders worth $3.1 million combined potential value; Advanced Analytical Consulting Group, Inc. held ten orders worth $3 million; and The Rand Corporation held eight orders worth $2.2 million. Impaq International, LLC captured two orders worth $309 thousand. These four primes accounted for 100 percent of awarded task orders. All 26 orders funded a single customer agency—the Department of Labor Employee Benefits Security Administration National Office—with no set-asides applied across the vehicle's portfolio.

Representative task orders included pension simulation and asset-allocation modeling (ceiling $2.2 million), studies on target-date fund performance and cognitive ability in retirement decision-making (roughly $240–$300 thousand each), economic analyses of alternative work arrangements and divorce impact on retirement security (roughly $115–$240 thousand each), and literature reviews and regulatory support work (roughly $190–$390 thousand). Most task orders completed by September 2019 or earlier.

Various economic and statistical studies related to employer provided pension plans.