EBRI

What EBRI does

EBRI (Employee Benefit Research Institute), legally organized as the Employee Benefit Research Institute Education and Research Fund, is a Washington, DC-based nonprofit research organization founded in 1978 that produces unbiased, fact-based research on U.S. employee benefits, retirement, health, and financial wellbeing topics. The organization operates as a think tank with three research centers (Retirement Security, Health Benefits Innovation, Financial Wellbeing) and maintains a portfolio of proprietary databases (HSA, FSA, 401(k), IRA), longitudinal surveys (Retirement Confidence Survey since 1991, Workplace Wellness Survey, Consumer Engagement in Health Care Survey, ICHRA Survey), a proprietary modeling tool (Retirement Security Projection Model®), an interactive planning tool (Ballpark E$timate), and an interactive analytics platform (EBRInteractive).

Its core technology infrastructure centers on statistical and actuarial modeling rather than software-as-a-service — EBRI aggregates survey-administration data (in partnership with Greenwald & Associates), maintains multi-decade longitudinal data assets, and produces analysis via Issue Briefs, Fast Facts, By the Numbers reports, Policy Forums, and the EBRI-Milken Institute Retirement Symposium.

EBRI's revenue model is membership-dues-based: organizations including plan sponsors, benefits providers, consultants, asset managers, unions, doctor/hospital groups, and insurers pay recurring annual dues for access to full research output and the ability to influence EBRI's research agenda. Non-members access limited public summaries via the website, newsletter, YouTube recordings, and social media. Event-related revenue from registration fees and select partner research contracts (e.g., Lincoln Financial) supplements dues. The organization sells no physical products and operates a single Washington, DC headquarters supporting 11-50 employees.

Name

EBRI

Legal name

Employee Benefit Research Institute Education and Research Fund

Website

https://ebri.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1978

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

EBRI is a Washington, DC-based nonprofit research institute founded in 1978 that delivers unbiased research, proprietary databases, and longitudinal surveys on employee benefits, retirement, health, and financial wellbeing to plan sponsors, providers, consultants, asset managers, unions, and policymakers via a membership-dues model.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Washington

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Membership Dues: EBRI is a nonprofit funded by individual and organization membership. Organizations including plan sponsors, providers, consultants, asset managers, unions, doctor/hospital groups, and insurers pay membership dues for access to EBRI research and to provide input on EBRI's research agenda.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels10 records

Core offering

EBRI is a nonprofit research institute that produces independent, fact-based research, surveys, and proprietary databases on employee benefits, including retirement, health benefits, and financial wellbeing. Its offering combines membership-based access to longitudinal surveys (e.g., Retirement Confidence Survey), proprietary plan databases (401(k), IRA, HSA, FSA), policy modeling tools (Retirement Security Projection Model®), and educational forums and webinars for employers, consultants, providers, and policymakers.

Product overview

EBRI (Employee Benefit Research Institute) is a nonprofit research organization dedicated to providing unbiased, fact-based research on employee benefits. Rather than a single unified product, EBRI offers a comprehensive portfolio of research services including: databases (401(k), IRA, HSA, FSA), annual surveys (Retirement Confidence Survey, Workplace Wellness Survey, Consumer Engagement in Health Care Survey), research centers (Retirement Security, Health Benefits Innovation, Financial Wellbeing), interactive tools (EBRInteractive), planning tools (Ballpark E$timate, Retirement Security Projection Model®), and educational events (EBRIefings webinars, Policy Forums). The organization serves employers, policymakers, service providers, and benefits professionals who need data-driven insights for benefits design and policy decisions.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• EBRI Membership

Quantifiable outcome

• Retirement Confidence Survey has been conducted annually since 1991, tracking trends over more than three decades.
• +1 more outcomes

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature10 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core and flagship.

• Greenwald & AssociatescoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerEBRI partners with Greenwald & Associates for survey administration and research. Together they conduct the EBRI/Greenwald Workplace Wellness Survey, EBRI/Greenwald Consumer Engagement in Health Care Survey, and other research projects. Greenwald & Associates brings expertise in survey design and consumer research.
• Lincoln FinancialcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLincoln Financial partnered with EBRI on a research series examining broker perspectives on supplemental health, dental, and vision benefits. The partnership produced surveys on benefits brokers' expectations for voluntary benefits sales growth.
• Milken InstituteflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerEBRI co-hosts the EBRI-Milken Institute Retirement Symposium with the Milken Institute. This annual event (held 2024, 2025, 2026) brings together industry leaders to discuss retirement security issues and policy. It represents EBRI's flagship partnership for retirement research dissemination.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Center for Retirement Research at Boston College: Nonpartisan research center focused on retirement policy and is a primary direct competitor to EBRI's Retirement Security Research Center, producing complementary issue briefs, databases, and working papers used by similar plan sponsors and policymakers.
• Investment Company Institute (ICI): Leading association conducting research on mutual funds, ETFs, 401(k) and IRA ownership, producing widely-cited retirement and investment statistics that overlap directly with EBRI's 401(k) and IRA Database offerings.
• LIMRA: Industry-funded research organization serving insurance and financial services firms with proprietary data on retirement, annuities, workplace benefits, and group insurance, overlapping materially with EBRI's member-driven research model and customer base.

Broad incumbents

• RAND Corporation: Large, broadly scoped policy research organization whose work on health benefits, retirement policy, and economic security addresses the same employer and policymaker audiences that EBRI serves, but at meaningfully greater scale and across many other topic areas.
• Pew Research Center: Major nonpartisan research institution publishing data-driven reports on financial well-being, retirement, and demographics, attracting similar policy and media attention to EBRI while serving a much broader topic mandate.
• National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER): Premier academic economics research organization whose working papers on retirement, Social Security, healthcare, and labor markets influence the same policy and academic audiences that EBRI's Issue Briefs target, although NBER focuses on broader economics research.
• Urban Institute: Nonpartisan policy research organization whose Retirement Policy Program and Health Policy Center produce research and data on Social Security, retirement security, and health coverage that directly overlaps with EBRI's mission and is delivered to overlapping policy audiences.
• Commonwealth Fund: Foundation supporting independent health policy research with a strong emphasis on employer-sponsored and ACA health coverage, addressing the same plan-sponsor and policymaker segments as EBRI's health benefits research and databases.

Others

• Milken Institute: Flagship partner that co-hosts the EBRI-Milken Institute Retirement Symposium and runs the Milken Institute Financial Innovation Lab, addressing retirement and economic issues that overlap with EBRI's research themes while operating more as a think tank and convening organization than a benefits-research peer.

Emerging players

• Aspen Institute Financial Security Program: Mission-driven research and policy initiative focused on financial security and benefits for working Americans, producing research and convenings that overlap with EBRI's Financial Wellbeing Research Center but at a narrower scale and stage.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/ebri
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/employee-benefit-research-institute

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles17 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about EBRI