PRAs are diversified, long-horizon accounts. Only custodial PRAs—after the bookkeeping phase ends—hold market assets. Early balances are notional and untouched by volatility. Custodians must meet strict fiduciary standards and offer default life-cycle portfolios that automatically reduce equity exposure with age.

By retirement, PRA assets are fully custodial, diversified, and set on a glide-path that limits volatility later in life. Withdrawals occur gradually over decades, not in a single lump sum, minimizing timing risk.

The PRA design retains a minimum benefit floor so no worker falls below today’s progressive replacement levels. Required contributions are calibrated to generate roughly twice the retirement benefit of Social Security on average, even for low-earning workers.

During the bookkeeping phase, FICA flows and benefit payments continue exactly as they do now. As balances mature into custodial PRAs, the system becomes a privately owned, government-mandated retirement program, similar in structure to IRAs but universal and automatic.

No. When a cohort completes its bookkeeping phase, its balance is simply paid in cash and deposited into its private PRA custodian. This is the same fiscal mechanism the government uses to pay any maturing Treasury obligation—routine and budgetable.

PRA assets are fully inheritable. Remaining balances transfer to heirs and may be rolled into a spouse’s PRA if desired.

These continue under a small dedicated payroll tax or DI pool. The PRA reform replaces only the retirement portion of Social Security.

Custodial PRAs may include Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS), equities, and diversified bond funds. AWI growth during the bookkeeping phase already outpaces inflation historically, providing added protection.

No. FICA remains unchanged through the transition. As legacy beneficiaries steadily decline, FICA decreases in controlled steps and eventually disappears entirely, except for Medicare and the DI portion.

No. Workers do nothing. Bookkeeping is automatic; once custodial, funds default into regulated target-date portfolios unless the worker opts into another approved fund on the custodian’s platform.

No. Custodial PRAs are privately owned accounts—legally identical to IRAs and 401(k)s. They are held at institutions such as Fidelity, Schwab, Vanguard, TIAA, or major banks, and are not part of the federal budget.

No. The current pay-as-you-go system is the gamble—one already headed for insolvency. PRAs build real, inheritable financial assets governed by modern risk-management, not political promises.

Nothing changes. All current retirees and near-retirees receive full promised benefits funded by ongoing FICA during the wind-down.

No. Under our updated design, no transition debt is required. Costs are contained through benefit-formula adjustments, the rise of PRA savings, and the natural decline of legacy obligations.

No. Singapore’s CPF funds housing, health care, and retirement simultaneously. A U.S. PRA funds only retirement. Under our model, required saving is far below the 10.6% OASI tax and still produces roughly double Social Security’s lifetime retirement benefit.

Yes. Workers select from a list of regulated providers—similar to the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) system for federal employees. Fiduciary, solvency, and transparency standards ensure uniform safety.

Young workers benefit most: they get decades of compound growth, full asset ownership, and inheritability rather than relying on declining pay-as-you-go transfers.

Once custodial PRAs exist, they are private property. Reversing them would require asset confiscation, which is politically and legally untenable.