This report provides a conceptual framework that describes how asset accumulation unfolds over an individual’s lifetime and how the effects of such accumulation can best be understood within the context of the life course. The report identifies five factors that are important in understanding the low levels of asset accumulation among low-income households and places those factors within the context of time, aging, development, and sequencing, all of which are critical in the building of assets over the life course. (Author abstract)